U.S. unlocked smartphone owners grew to 50.1 million active users at the end of Q1, up 8% from the same 2019 quarter, reported NPD Thursday. “Unlocked smartphone users, who generally tend to be more tech-savvy than average smartphone users, unsurprisingly over-indexed in their awareness of the 5G technology.” NPD canvassed 1,500 unlocked smartphone adults in May, and found 42% said they would be very or extremely interested in buying a 5G smartphone, compared with only 31% of locked phone owners.

5G has huge implications for mobile entertainment, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday in remarks at a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry conference. "Imagine how much more they will demand this content when you get rid of slow load times and mid-stream interruptions.” Pai stressed advances in virtual and augmented reality made possible by 5G. He said 5G's m-entertainment boom may provide more competition to MVPDs, online streamers and others: "When Netflix is trying to figure out how to offer a better value proposition than not only cable multisystem operators and other streaming video services, but also video-game makers, all competitors will have to step up their efforts." Pai said the FCC remains focused on cutting regulation and making more spectrum available for broadband. “We haven’t been eliminating rules for the sake of eliminating rules,” he said: “Our goals have been to match the rules to the times, and to promote innovation and investment in faster, better wired and wireless networks.” In 2019, consumers spent more than $120 billion on digital games worldwide, he said. “Last year, 52% of Gen Z and 46% of millennials in the United States regularly played video games for hour-plus stretches.”

AT&T 5G is now live in 355 markets, including 28 announced Monday. Dallas, Salt Lake City, Miami, Orlando and Hawaii's Maui County are among the latest.

The global cellular baseband processor market grew 9% in Q1, reaching $5.2 billion in revenue, reported Strategy Analytics Thursday. Qualcomm maintained its baseband market share leadership with 42% of revenue, followed by HiSilicon (20%) and MediaTek (14%), it said. The pandemic combined with weak seasonal demand to restrict baseband shipment growth. But 5G baseband shipments spurred revenue growth because they command a “significant premium” over 4G basebands, said SA: 5G basebands were nearly 10% of the units shipped, 30% of revenue.

Verizon completed successful trials of dynamic spectrum sharing technology for 5G in Texas and Minnesota, the company said Monday. DSS allows 5G to run simultaneous with 4G on multiple spectrum bands. “When commercially deployed in the near future, this new technology will allow Verizon to use its full portfolio of current spectrum resources to serve both 4G and 5G customers,” the carrier said.

Nokia completed a series of over-the-air 5G new radio trials using C-band spectrum in Dallas, the company said Friday. “The drive tests, which achieved stable peak throughput speeds of over 1 Gbps, confirmed that Nokia’s solution is ready for commercial deployment ahead of the U.S. C-band spectrum auction in December,” it said.

Analysts said Tuesday reports that SoftBank will sell up to two-thirds of its stake in T-Mobile make sense as the Japanese company raises cash for other ventures. New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin said T-Mobile will likely buy at least 7% of the shares to take its stake above 50%, with the balance sold to the public. “This is not overly surprising news and has been speculated in the wake of SoftBank's deleveraging,” Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche told investors. “This news is driven more by factors surrounding SoftBank's balance sheet than any underlying issues” at T-Mobile, she said. SoftBank bought a big stake in Sprint in 2012, its major foray into the U.S. wireless sector. SoftBank and T-Mobile didn’t comment.

AT&T is still working through what the COVID-19 pandemic will mean for its business and network, Jeff McElfresh, CEO of AT&T Communications, said at a Bank of America virtual conference Tuesday. Questions remain whether an iconic phone will emerge this year “that brings with it the true 5G new radio capabilities” and how much consumers will be willing to pay, he said. “It’s to be seen … but we’re planning for it and we will be there to compete,” McElfresh said. AT&T is unlikely to reopen all of its company stores closed as a result of the virus, he said. “At a high level, it’s too early for anybody to predict what the recovery is going to look like,” he said: “Our network performed incredibly well. The demand for products and services, such as broadband connectivity and wireless, really flourished.” What’s happening varies across the U.S., he said. “We’ve got different gradations of recoveries or shelter-in-place rules and regulations.” AT&T is having more business traffic in areas that reopened than in those that remain closed, which is “common sense,” McElfresh said. Companies learned a lot about how employees can work from home and stay productive, he noted. AT&T is evaluating “all options that might be available” to get more mid-band spectrum, especially the C band, he said, “There’s no other spectrum that’s available with that kind of bandwidth,” he said of the C band. “The big question is will it be unencumbered and can it be put to use in an orderly fashion” and on an acceptable timeline, he said.

Samsung touted an AMOLED infinity display, camera features and affordable price Monday, announcing the $599 Galaxy A71 5G smartphone that will begin selling Friday at T-Mobile, Sprint and Samsung.com. The 6.7-inch phone will be available through AT&T, Verizon Wireless and other carriers later this summer, it said. AT&T, which has 5G in 327 markets, will begin preorders Friday with availability July 10, said the carrier, pushing a $10 monthly plan with a new line and unlimited data. The 5G phone has five cameras: a 32-megapixel front selfie camera, a 64-megapixel main lens, 12-megapixel wide-angle, 5-megapixel macro and 5-megapixel depth camera with a live focus effect. The scene optimizer adjusts exposure, contrast and white balance, and the intelligent switch function automatically switches a shot into wide mode. Samsung said. The supplied battery provides 25 watts of fast charging. The phone has 6 GB memory and 128 GB storage, expandable to 1 TB, said the company.

The Open Radio Access Policy Coalition said Friday it added 14 companies, bringing the total to 45. New members include Ciena, Cohere Technologies, Crown Castle, DeepSig, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, JMA Wireless, Marvell Technology Group, Nokia, Pivotal Commware, Quanta Cloud Technology, Radisys and U.S. Cellular.