Verizon said it met its 5G goals for 2019, with 5G Ultra Wideband service available in 31 cities, with seven 5G-enabled devices. The service is also available in 15 NFL stadiums and four indoor arenas, Verizon said Monday. The latest cities are Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio; and Hampton Roads, Virginia. “We said we would lead in 5G and we are,” said Kyle Malady, Verizon chief technology officer.

Keysight Technologies extended its collaboration with AAC Technologies for validation of antenna designs for 5G new radio devices, it said Wednesday. Keysight’s 5G solutions will facilitate introduction of high-performance 5G products in “nearly any form factor,” said the company. AAC provides RF front-end integrated components for the global wireless market.

Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr are hopeful the FCC will soon propose sharing the 6 GHz band with Wi-Fi and other unlicensed users. “The conversation” here “has matured extensively,” O’Rielly said after Thursday's commissioners' meeting. “I’m excited about where we’re about to land.” He predicted an item could come in Q1. If we get rid of hyperbole and sensationalism, “we can get to the right mitigation mechanisms and the protections needed from different types of unlicensed,” he told us in Q&A. “I think we’re just about ready to turn the corner.” Carr said he has had “some very productive meetings” with power companies using the band. The band is “part of a 5G ecosystem that we need to develop,” he said. “I see the opportunity here for a significant win. … There are still decisions to be made on that band.”

There were 4 million 5G subscriber connections worldwide in Q3, a 166 percent sequential increase, 5G Americas said Thursday. The period, added 250 million LTE connections, 5G Americas said. The group counts 50 commercial 5G networks, which adhere to 3rd Generation Partnership Project standards, expected to rise to 67 by year's end. “Early adopters in 5G technology are testing the waters to see what their devices can do on the new technology,” said President Chris Pearson: “They’re taking advantage of new capabilities now being offered by several 5G networks that have come online over the past quarter. We expect to see a strong ramp up in 2020 as more devices become available and coverage expands.”

Altran, AT&T, EchoStar, Eutelsat, GoGo, Hughes, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Ligado, Nokia, SES and Sprint are among the companies making up the Non-Terrestrial Networks 5G Integration Working Group announced Tuesday by ATIS. It said the group will focus on standards for non-terrestrial 5G networks, developing and coordinating technical positions. ATIS President Susan Miller said the WG will help ensure satellite systems are integrated into 5G. ATIS said the Intelsat chairs the group. It said the WG will develop technical proposals aligned between satellite and terrestrial 3rd Generation Partnership Project ecosystem parties, with the overall goal an end-to-end standard by Q3.

The FCC auction of licenses in the 37, 39 GHz and 47 GHz bands opened Tuesday, with $715.3 million in gross proceeds after the first two rounds. The FCC is making 3,400 MHz of millimeter-wave spectrum available through the auction for 5G. The auction “shows that America is continuing to lead the world in 5G, the next generation of wireless connectivity,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “With this year’s high band auctions and continued focus on releasing critical mid-band spectrum next year, we will maintain our leadership in the emerging 5G economy,” said CTIA President Meredith Baker. Three rounds are scheduled for Wednesday.

Marvell Technology shipped a “significant” volume of 5G processors to a “key customer” in fiscal Q3 ended Nov. 2, said CEO Matthew Murphy on a quarterly call. That was a quarter earlier than previously anticipated because the customer “requested very aggressive delivery timelines to meet their commitments,” said Murphy. The shipments will help the customer “rapidly roll out base stations for the initial wave of 5G deployments” in South Korea, he said Tuesday. “This is just a start of 5G deployments and we are looking forward to a lot more growth from 5G in the longer term.” The "initial deployments" in South Korea will "continue to be the main driver for our 5G revenue for another couple of quarters," he said. "We should start to see the benefit from other geographies" next year, he said. That’s when Marvell expects “the start of 5G adoption in Japan and other countries such as the U.S. as they start to install 5G base stations in higher volumes,” he said.

Qualcomm will accelerate 5G adoption in mid-range smartphones with its modem-RF systems, ABI Research analyst Malik Saadi emailed Wednesday. Calling the Snapdragon 765 platform a “milestone,” Saadi said Qualcomm will have an edge on competitors MediaTek and Unisoc, which aren’t expected to hit the market before second half 2020. The X52 modem-RF system design is 100 percent based on Qualcomm’s chips, including modem, antenna and RF components, meaning OEM partners won’t have to go through complex RF procurement processes involving different RF chip suppliers. The system-level design approach adopted in Snapdragon X52 could help improve the overall connectivity performance of the platform and lower its power consumption compared with assembling various RF components from multiple vendors, Saadi said. Most competitors, including MediaTek, Unisoc, Hisilicon, Samsung and Apple, still lack key RF components, he said. Tuesday, Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon told the Snapdragon Tech Summit (see 1912030044) 2020 will be the year 5G reaches scale, with an expected 200 million subscribers globally. Qualcomm forecasts 2.8 billion 5G “connections” will be at play by 2025, he said. “It’s really going to be a much faster transition than what we have seen in prior generations of wireless.”

Qualcomm estimates 325 operators in 109 countries are "investing" in 5G, President Cristiano Amon told the Snapdragon Tech Summit Tuesday in Maui, Hawaii. Forty operators and 40 smartphone OEMs globally have launched 5G devices and services, he said. Qualcomm sees 2020 as the year in which “we’re really going to bring 5G to scale,” he said. “By the end of 2020, we expect to reach 200 million 5G subscribers.” Qualcomm forecasts 2.8 billion 5G “connections” globally will be at play by 2025, he said. “It’s really going to be a much faster transition than what we have seen in prior generations of wireless.”

Verizon is using Amazon Web Services for a 5G pilot where developers can deploy applications requiring ultra-low latency to 5G mobile devices, they said Tuesday. Developers could deliver latency-sensitive uses like machine learning inference, autonomous industrial equipment, smart cars and cities, IoT and augmented and virtual reality. Placing AWS compute and storage services at the edge of Verizon’s 5G network with AWS Wavelength brings processing power and storage physically closer to users and their devices. Customers in the Chicago trial include Bethesda Softworks and the NFL. Additional deployments are planned across the U.S. in 2020.