People see fixed wireless as the “most desirable” 5G use, based on a poll by Parks Associates, Nokia said Wednesday. Parks surveyed 3,000 people in the U.K., U.S. and South Korea before the pandemic, finding 76% see fixed the most appealing. The company said 66% claim they would subscribe to 5G fixed access if it “cost the same as their current broadband service and delivers the same or better performance” and 41% say they had the choice of a single provider.

FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson warned against “alarmism” on RF safety and 5G, in a Washington Post opinion piece Thursday evening. The U.S. hasn't faced physical attacks on wireless infrastructure by activists who believe without evidence that 5G helped spread COVID-19 (see 2005150022), but Johnson said RF fears slowed 5G spread in some areas. “Conjectures about 5G’s effect on human health are long on panic and short on science,” he said: “Paradoxically, such fears are likely to exacerbate suffering during the covid-19 crisis, because the dislocation caused by the coronavirus pandemic requires strong Internet connectivity to facilitate telework, remote learning, as well as staying in touch with friends and family.” The FCC is apparently “sufficiently threatened by widespread opposition to 5G as well as pending lawsuits involving the FCC, the CTIA, or Apple, … to publish an op-ed,” emailed Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley, Friday. “Will the Post give equal time to wireless safety organizations trying to protect the public's health and safety from exposure to radio frequency radiation?”

Senior Broadcom executives sidestepped questions on a quarterly investor call Thursday about their disclosures of “product cycle delays” that will hold back a large customer’s flagship smartphone introduction until later in 2020. Broadcom’s wireless components revenue in Q2 ended May 3 declined 14% sequentially from Q1 on “typical seasonality” trends, said CEO Hock Tan. In Q3 ending early August, “we would normally expect to see a double-digit sequential uplift in revenue from the ramp of the next-generation phone at our large North American mobile phone customer,” he said in apparent reference to Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 12, its first 5G smartphone. “However, this year, we do not expect to see this uptick in revenue until our fourth fiscal quarter” ending early November, he said. It expects Q3 wireless income to be down sequentially as in Q2. “Because of product cycle delays, the trough for our fiscal year will be Q3 this coming quarter, and that’s what we reflected in our forecast,” said Tan. “Nothing has changed in terms of designs,” just the “timing” of the introduction, he said. Apple didn’t comment Friday.

T-Mobile “has a clear spectral advantage in the race to 5G given its head start to plug and play mid-band spectrum” after gaining 2.5 GHz spectrum from Sprint, said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a note to investors Friday. “We expect this advantage will incentivize” AT&T and Verizon “to be aggressive in the upcoming mid-band spectrum auctions,” she said. Fritzsche cited data by Allnet Insight that AT&T has 175 MHz and Verizon 115 MHz of sub-6 GHz spectrum, versus 324 for T-Mobile.

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly asked Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette for help in better coordinating “building codes, construction techniques and materials, and wireless communications coverage.” The FCC and DOE should “collaborate more extensively in order to produce thoughtful building codes that will not only allow the Department to fulfill its mission, but also expand wireless spectrum opportunities, and thus facilitate more consumer uses,” O’Rielly said in a letter posted Thursday. DOE's effort to improve the energy and thermal efficiency of buildings “has had an impact on wireless signals near and within these structures,” he said: “Higher energy efficiency requirements, construction techniques and the use of certain materials, such as metal-coated windows, double-pane windows, and metal foil barriers, have increased … building entry and exit loss.” The need for spectrum efficiency is increasing as consumer demand for wireless continues to grow, he said.

South Korea leads the world in 5G deployment, with Kuwait and Switzerland close behind, reported Omdia Thursday. The researcher studied several metrics, including 5G operator launches, network coverage and subscriber adoption, and ranked South Korea as the “early market leader.” It topped the world with 4.67 million subscribers through December, “which equates to about seven per cent of wireless services in the market,” it said. The U.S. was in fourth place in an accompanying chart.

Attacks against 5G infrastructure and disinformation on health risks (see 2005150022) imperil rollout of services needed to ensure Europe's recovery from the pandemic, speakers said at a Wednesday webinar hosted by GSMA and the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association. 5G is the "missing link" between Europe's digital strategy and its environmental plans, but misinformation risks significantly delaying the deployment, said ETNO Director General Lise Fuhr. There have been about 142 site attacks in 10 EU countries and the U.K., which had the most attacks, said GSMA Head-Europe Afke Schaart. It's not just posting misinformation; it has become more mainstream, with a global 5G protest planned for Saturday, she said. The impact includes some countries postponing spectrum auctions, Schaart said. One way to fight back might be for local politicians to get involved in decisions on deploying 5G, said Member of European Parliament Miapetra Kumpula-Natri, of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats and Finland. Local authorities should be given information about the technology so citizens can trust their decisions on installations. She urged governments planning 5G spectrum allocations to focus on coverage rather than revenue to allow operators to build out. Deployment has challenges, said Susana Solis Perez, of the Renew Europe Group and Spain. These include lack of demand for 5G services, environmental issues, electromagnetic frequency (EMF) considerations, network security and the risk of widening the digital divide. There's no time to waste in building infrastructure in response to COVID-19, she said. EU's e-commerce directive is "too weak" to attack disinformation, said Lisa Felton, Vodafone Group head-data, services and consumer regulation. The upcoming EC proposal for a digital services act should include legal requirements for actions online platforms must take in response to disinformation if they don't want to lose safe harbor liability protections, she said. The EC believes public health protection is paramount, and recommends maximum EMF exposure limits with wide safety margins based on scientific data, said Andreas Geiss, DG Connect head of unit-spectrum policy. The EC wants to focus debate on those facts and evidence, seeking to inform people about EMF and the benefits of 5G, he said. There's little evidence RF radiation causes cancer, affects fertility, results in changes to development, cognition or behavior, harms the immune systems or causes electrohypersensitivity, said Frank de Vocht, University of Bristol senior academic in epidemiological and public health. The idea that 5G affects the immune system is the basis for 5G/COVID-19 theories "haunting" social media, but there's no plausible theory on how millimeter waves could do that, he said.

CTA asked the FCC to allow the presale of new RF devices to the public prior to equipment authorization. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly urged the change earlier Tuesday (see 2006020069). CTA wants the U.S. to keep up in 5G. “While founded on a laudable goal -- ensuring public safety -- as a practical matter, certain provisions in the Commission’s equipment marketing and importation rules are now arcane and counterproductive," the group said: “Companies are not permitted to engage in presales of their not-yet-authorized technology products on a conditional basis to the general public, only to wholesalers and retailers.” Section 2.803(c)(2) of FCC rules, dating to the 1970s is “outdated” and doesn’t reflect market realities, CTA said. "Allowing conditional sales to consumers prior to the official grant of authorization would give manufacturers a better sense of end-user demand, help smaller manufacturers reserve factory space and attract investors, and reduce waste."

ATIS is developing a power standard to speed deployment of 5G, small cells and other distributed networks, a process expected to take at least a year. “The work addresses the need for a standard for remotely powering distributed devices that consume more than the 100-Watt constraint identified by other industry standards,” ATIS said Tuesday.

Sen. Tom Cotton R-Ark., is among those set to testify Tuesday before the U.K. Parliament’s Defense Select Committee on 5G security. Cotton said Monday his testimony, which he will do via webcam, will focus on Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei. Cotton was one of several lawmakers who in January criticized the U.K.’s National Security Council to allow equipment from Huawei on “non-core” parts of the country’s communications infrastructure but bar it from “sensitive locations” like military bases (see 2001280074). Recent media reports claim the U.K. government may be planning to reverse course. Also testifying will be 5G Action Now Chairman Mike Rogers and the Hudson Institute's Robert Spalding, the Defense Committee said. The hearing will begin at 9:30 a.m. EDT.