T-Mobile said it opened a 20,000 square-foot device lab at its home base in Bellevue, Washington. The lab will “test smartphones and any other devices that connect to the Un-carrier’s network using any technology available,” T-Mobile said Tuesday: “The space is made up of more than a dozen testing areas where T-Mobile engineers analyze and fine-tune everything from network signal quality, voice call and sound quality, data throughput and video optimization … to in-depth testing of the latest software, applications and services.” The lab will also test the durability of devices. “5G will unlock SO MANY new capabilities and opportunities for innovation,” said Neville Ray, T-Mobile chief technology officer in the release: “With that comes new complexities in delivering the technology to customers.”

Top executives at T-Mobile spoke with all five FCC commissioners on their proposed buy of Sprint, in calls through Monday. CEO John Legere spoke with Chairman Ajit Pai and his Republican colleagues, President Michael Sievert with the Democrats. The executives “referenced the draft order on circulation and urged the Commission to move expeditiously to approve the license transfers and recognize the many benefits flowing from the transaction that the Applicants have detailed in the record,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-197. “They noted that they are eager to get started standing up New T-Mobile and building its world-leading 5G network. They also stressed that there was no need for an additional round of comments.” Pai last week circulated a draft order that would approve the deal (see 1908140052).

The FCC Thursday posted a March 22 letter by Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp to Jeff Shuren, director of FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, seeking counsel on health effects of cellphones. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai subsequently circulated an item that keeps current limits in place, while making a few updates (see 1908080061). "We are aware that the final reports of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Study and your public statements that NTP’s experimental findings should not be applied to human cell phone usage, that the available scientific evidence to date does not support adverse health effects in humans due to exposures at or under the current limits, and that the FDA is committed to protecting public health and continues its review of the many sources of scientific literature on this topic,” Knapp wrote: “There has been strong interest for the FCC to address the standards matter, particularly as new technologies such as 5G are introduced.” Knapp sought “guidance as to whether any changes to the standards are appropriate.” His agency didn't immediately say why it took several months to release the letter.

Qualcomm is working with the Department for Information Technologies of Moscow, Russian mobile operators, and equipment and software vendors to support testing and deployment of Europe’s first 5G millimeter wave network in Moscow this fall, it said Wednesday. The project is meant to create 5G-enabled digital services and innovation in the city, including virtual and augmented reality applications. Moscow plans to equip business centers, stadiums, main streets, congress halls, railway stations and airports with “high-capacity ultra-fast, low-latency mobile communications” for new 5G-enabled services for a range of devices from smartphones to fixed wireless access points, said Yulia Klebanova, Qualcomm Europe vice president-business development.

The FCC Wireless Bureau said it’s consolidating Dish Network requests for extra time to build out various spectrum licenses with T-Mobile and Sprint requests for approval of their deal. Last month, Dish sought extensions for AWS 4, lower 700 MHz E-block and AWS H-block licenses, the bureau said Thursday: “With those requests, DISH expressed a willingness to accept a number of conditions that would generally require it to construct a nationwide 5G broadband network, subject to making significant financial payments if it fails do so.” All are consolidated under docket 18-197. The FCC said attorneys general in two more states, Indiana and Texas, sought access to numbering resource utilization and forecast reports filed by carriers and disaggregated, carrier-specific local number portability data as they scrutinize the deal. "The Commission is providing this notice to inform carriers of the requests … to allow carriers the opportunity to contact those Offices of Attorney General or to take any other action they may deem appropriate if they have concerns or oppose disclosure,” said a separate Thursday notice.

S&P Global Ratings raised its credit rating on Keysight Technologies to BBB from BBB-minus Wednesday. The upgrade reflects Keysight’s “growing importance in 5G-related test, research and development and other emerging applications as evidenced by the company's strong revenue growth in recent quarters, steady market share gains, and product adoption among its broad customer base,” S&P said: “We expect the company's exposure to worldwide 5G wireless technology test and simulation projects, solutions to serve emerging automotive applications beyond the communications market, and data center network investments to continue supporting solid growth prospects in the near to medium term.”

NAB told the FCC it should move forward on the C band and not wait for more "ill-conceived" proposals on how to reallocate the spectrum for 5G. The FCC can make no more than 200 MHz available without raising interference concerns, said a filing Wednesday in docket 18-122. “If the Commission caves to unreasonable and unjustified pressure to reallocate more spectrum in the C-band for terrestrial wireless services, it will no doubt be harming the backbone of our nation’s audio and video content delivery system,” NAB said: “Further delay in reallocating 200 MHz of spectrum will give oxygen to ill-conceived, self-interested schemes that are out of touch with reality.” The FCC shouldn’t force broadcasters to rely on fiber as an alternative to C-band spectrum, as proposed by a coalition led by America’s Communications Association (see 1907150010), NAB said. ACA didn’t comment on the NAB arguments. But ACA said in a filing posted Wednesday it spoke with Aaron Goldberger, aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, about its plan. Coalition members had conversations “with most of the MVPD programmers that use the C-band for delivery of video programming and have participated in the proceeding, and that it has a few more scheduled this week,” ACA said: “Within weeks, ACA Connects will be supplementing its original proposal. The additional material will further detail how the fiber network would be designed, established, launched, maintained, and paid for, particularly the part of the network that connects programmers to data centers.” China is "spending tens of billions of dollars to deploy high-capacity fiber-optic and advanced wireless infrastructure in order to win the race to 5G,” emailed ACA Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman. “To compete, the United States must do the same. The 5G Plus Plan is the only proposal before the Commission that clears at least 370 MHz on a nationwide basis and builds out more than 100,000 miles of fiber to small markets and rural areas. It’s hands down the best solution in the record.” ACA understands broadcasters want to remain in the band and can under the plan, he said: “It now seems broadcasters want to tell small cable operators to stay on the band too.”

Verizon sees itself as 12-to-15-months ahead of other U.S. carriers on 5G, Executive Vice President Ronan Dunne said Wednesday at an Oppenheimer financial conference. “Not all 5G is created equal,” Dunne said. The way the standards were written “the broader the bandwidth you have … the more of the features and capabilities of 5G that you can enable,” he said. Verizon has both a coverage and capability strategy, he said, saying with lower bandwidth 5G will more resemble very good LTE service. “We have a very good 4G LTE service in parts of the U.S. where some of our competitors don’t,” he said: “If somebody else is rushing to bring out 5G nationwide it may be because they don’t actually have credible 4G coverage in those areas to start with.” High-band spectrum is offering 1-2 Gbps download speeds while lower-band spectrum offers speeds in the “low hundreds” of Mbps, Dunne said. Verizon plans 5G coverage nationwide, with millimeter-wave in “the majority of places where data is,” he said. Since launching in Chicago two months ago, Verizon doubled its facilities there and more than doubled the area covered, he said. “Our customers are already enjoying the experience of what millimeter-wave can do for them,” he said. Some of Verizon’s high-band spectrum has been turned on in some of its markets but is still being tested and isn’t available to consumers. Dunne predicted 5G phones that cost under $800 will be available in the first half of next year: “That will be a catalyst for a bigger 5G adoption.” Fewer customers are upgrading their phones, but that happens at the end of any generation of wireless, he said. All of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project “standard for 5G is unequivocally designed around massive scale,” Dunne said: There’s “the ability to support 10 times as many connected devices per square mile of network than was done before, the ability to transfer data at rates that are faster than … the speed of a bullet train.” Deployment of the 5G network has been faster than 4G and the same will be true of handsets, he said.

The FCC hopes to reallocate the 5.9 GHz band for shared, unlicensed use (see 1907310033).

Verizon owns a spectrum portfolio “for the 5G-era” and is “on track” to launch 5G in 30 markets this year, CEO Hans Vestberg said Thursday during a call with analysts as the company released Q2 results. Fiber is critical to 5G and Verizon’s fiber deployment extends to more than 60 cities, he said: “It's so essential for the whole 5G play that we have to have this fiber.” Throughput speeds in 5G areas are as fast as 2 Gbps, compared with 600 Mbps with LTE, he said. Verizon estimated it will spend $17 billion-$18 billion this year on its network. Net income for the quarter was $4 billion, compared with $4.2 billion a year ago. Revenue was $32 billion vs. $32.2 billion last year. The company had a net increase of 1.2 million retail postpaid connections -- 431,000 phone and 647,000 smartphones. “Subscriber results were better than expected; financial results a little worse,” said New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin: “No change to guidance. I wouldn’t expect material changes to expectations based on these results.” Technology Business Research analyst Steve Vachon told investors that unknowns remain on Verizon’s spectrum plans. “Verizon plans on eventually deploying 5G on multiple spectrum licenses to provide nationwide coverage but a concrete timeline has yet to be disclosed beyond the company’s initial goal to offer mobile 5G services to 30 cities by the end of 2019 via millimeter wave spectrum,” he said: “Though initial 5G deployments will enable Verizon to build a presence in large metro areas, Verizon will likely trail AT&T and T-Mobile is serving smaller markets as the companies expect to provide nationwide 5G coverage in 2020 by leveraging both millimeter wave and low-band spectrum.”