The U.S. Export-Import Bank focused on 5G during a teleconference Thursday, part of its “Strengthening American Competitiveness” initiative. Chair Kimberly Reed said EXIM’s goal is that at least $27 billion of the bank’s funds be dedicated to exports that compete directly with China. “For us to be successful … it’s going to be critical for us to achieve tangible results in the form of completed deals that help specific businesses here in America generate exports and support U.S. jobs,” said Senior Vice President-Program on China and Transformational Exports David Trulio: “Economic security is national security.” There's “no more important strategic technology race than the race to establish secure 5G,” said James Jones, former U.S. national security adviser, now at the Jones Group International. 5G “underpins” all the major technologies of the future, including artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing and biotechnology, Jones said. “The consequences” of losing “are much larger and geopolitical in nature” and will determine what the world will look like, he said. China’s goals are “to subsidize, to win market entry and leverage geopolitical gain,” he said: “The strategy is being demonstrated all over the world as one of penetration, expansion and domination.” The U.S. can’t get other countries to not buy 5G technology from China without offering an alternative, he said. Samsung is based in South Korea but has a strong presence in the U.S., with many jobs here, said Terry Halvorsen, chief information officer-information technology and mobile communications. “Today, the world works in partnerships, and strong ally partnerships, strong business partnerships are needed to do well,” he said. “5G is going to play an amazing role in the new economy, particularly as we look at what the new world order is becoming with more mobile workers, more social distancing,” he said: The U.S. will need “trusted partners.” Juniper Networks has found that the pricing of Chinese 5G gear and the financing provided are “far more aggressive than what a U.S. publicly traded company can provide,” said Michael Liebsch, managing director-Juniper Financial Services. “We have to partner” to provide “a full end-to-end solution” and then figure how to provide financing versus one of the Chinese competitors, he said. Security underpins every other concern, said Quinn Bottum, Swoop Search chief technology officer. Companies are spending billions of dollars on security, but a hacker can spend thousands and take a system down, he said: “To really bring the value out of 5G, we have to solve that inflection point of security.” The goal is to not have U.S. companies lose deals based on foreign financing, Trulio said: “We want them to compete on a level playing field based on the quality of their products and services and financing should not that ends the deal in terms of who wins and loses.” The Chinese Embassy didn’t comment.

California Brain Tumor Association Outreach Director Kevin Mottus filed studies at the FCC, posted in docket 19-226 Wednesday, raising concerns about the health effects of RF emissions from wireless facilities. Comments are due Friday on a December NPRM (see 1912040036) on the range of frequencies for which RF exposure limits should apply. “The FCC and [Food and Drug Administration] lack the necessary competence and capacity to conduct proper safety testing upon whose results this rulemaking and human exposure limits to RF radiation should be based,” Mottus said: “We need proper safety testing as distinguished from demonstrably inadequate emissions testing.” “The FDA has many resources providing the agency’s view on exposure to radio frequency energy emitted by cellphones,” a spokesperson emailed. The FCC didn’t comment.

Dish Network's wireless strategy "is slowly coming together," and the company won't require outside funding for its network -- which should cost at least $10 billion, not counting spectrum purchases -- at least until July 2021, S&P said Friday. Dish has funding options including its spectrum assets, S&P said. It said Dish's wireless business will likely entail startup losses of $100 million to $200 million a year through 2021. It said key to its wireless business plans will be some kind of partnership to spread the costs. Dish didn't comment but on an earnings call last week, Chairman Charlie Ergen said on a Q1 investor call Thursday that company 5G network financing wasn't a concern (see 2005070049).

T-Mobile said it had the most postpaid net adds of any of U.S. carrier in Q1, reporting for the first time since completing the buy of Sprint. Front-line employees “stepped up big” during COVID-19, but the company is feeling financial effects, new CEO Mike Sievert told analysts Wednesday. “As the nation starts to emerge” after COVID-19, the company expects customers to be looking for better value in a weakened economy and T-Mobile will benefit, he said. Temporary closing of many company stores meant lower subscriber adds, service and equipment revenue “in the very short term,” he said. Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said profit took a $117 million hit due to the cost of closing the Sprint deal, with an $86 million hit from the pandemic. T-Mobile will have a better view of pandemic effects as Q2 continues, he said. The company plans to provide full-year guidance on the Q2 call, Carter said. “What a crazy quarter this was,” Sievert said: “The crisis has highlighted how crucial connectivity has become to our daily lives.” The carrier is deploying 5G on 2.5 GHz spectrum from Sprint in New York and Philadelphia and 5G on 600 MHz now covers 215 million customers, T-Mobile said. Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray said T-Mobile will soon deploy on the 2.5 GHz band across the Northeast. Revenue was $8.7 billion, up 5% over last year, and profit $951 million, also up 5%. T-Mobile reported record low postpaid churn of 0.86% and free cash flow of $732 million headed into the first of two big spectrum auctions this year.

Thirty-one global tech companies launched the Open Radio Access Network Coalition Tuesday “to promote policies that will advance the adoption of open and interoperable solutions” for networks. The FCC had focused on the issue, but a March 26 summit on 5G-focused open RAN technology was postponed because of COVID-19 (see 2003120071). “As evidenced by the current global pandemic, vendor choice and flexibility in next-generation network deployments are necessary from a security and performance standpoint,” said coalition Executive Director Diane Rinaldo (see also personals section), former NTIA acting administrator. “By promoting policies that standardize and develop open interfaces, we can ensure interoperability and security across different players and potentially lower the barrier to entry for new innovators.” “Intrigued,” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly tweeted: “Will be reaching out to new coalition … to hear issues & agenda. I’m supportive of end goal as is most every industry segment; very leery about any mandates to get there.” Members are Airspan, Altiostar, AT&T, AWS, Cisco, CommScope, Dell, Dish Network, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, IBM, Intel, Juniper Networks, Mavenir, Microsoft, NEC, NewEdge Signal Solutions, NTT, Oracle, Parallel Wireless, Qualcomm, Rakuten Mobile, Samsung Electronics America, Telefonica, US Ignite, Verizon, VMWare, Vodafone, World Wide Technology and XCOM Labs.

The Commerce Department drafted a regulation on U.S. companies participating in 5G standards-setting bodies involving Huawei. The rule is being discussed internally, said Matt Borman, deputy assistant secretary for export administration, at the department’s Information Systems Technical Advisory Committee meeting. Borman said the rule “will go a long way” toward addressing concerns from lawmakers and industry. Stakeholders said export controls hinder U.S. participation in standards-setting bodies, potentially ceding 5G leadership (see 2004100017). “That's what this draft reg is looking to get at,” Borman said Wednesday. “We certainly don’t want a situation where U.S. companies refrain from participating and then leave the standards field open to Huawei and other companies.” Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security is continuing to process license applications for exports to Huawei, Borman added. “There's still a review as to whether additional regulatory steps will be taken vis-a-vis Huawei,” he said. “Those are still kind of under review internally.”

American Tower is seeing a small COVID-19 business impact, the company said Wednesday, reporting Q1 results. “Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we delivered a solid first quarter,” said CEO Tom Bartlett. “The resilience and stability of our business model, our investment-grade balance sheet, substantial liquidity and the secular global growth trends in mobile data usage will help us manage through the ongoing crisis.” Bartlett told analysts executives have been working remotely. “Our infrastructure is incredibly critical to ensure our tenants are able to keep their customers connected,” he said: In many markets, staff got “official priority definitions” so their work can continue “largely uninterrupted.” The company expects “temporary” delays in a few markets, he said. Bartlett said 5G trends include the cloud “coming closer to the edge” and deployment in a number of bands “depending on the specific area’s coverage and capacity requirements.” The variety of devices and apps “is expected to grow faster than we can possibly imagine,” he said. The company had almost $2 billion in revenue, up 9.9% over last year, and profit of $419 million, up 2.7%. “When most companies are pulling guidance, the fact that American Tower left its 2020 guidance basically unchanged … says a great deal,” MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett told investors.

LightShed deemed Apple "neutral" Wednesday, saying 5G is unlikely to trigger a “supercycle” of iPhone sales, and consensus revenue and earnings estimates for 2021 are too optimistic. But carriers "will increase ad spend and use new network implementations to boost interest in 5G,” analyst Walter Piecyk told investors: COVID-19 “threatens our prediction of a stabilization in upgrade rates in 2020 based on near-term store closings and intermediate-term economic impacts.”

Former T-Mobile CEO John Legere notified the company he's resigning from the board of directors “effective immediately, to pursue other options,” said a T-Mobile SEC filing Friday. “Legere noted that he was not resigning because of any disagreement with management or the Board on any matter,” the filing said. Legere left as CEO April 1. His term was to expire June 4.

T-Mobile signed a three-year agreement to lease 600 MHz spectrum from entities controlled by Columbia Capital, and a similar deal is likely to follow with Dish Network, LightShed’s Walter Piecyk wrote investors Friday. Leasing is preferable because of T-Mobile’s “current leverage” ahead of the citizens broadband radio service and C-band auctions, the analyst said. Leasing spectrum means it can be “deployed in a matter of days,” he said. T-Mobile didn't comment Monday.