Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband mobility service is now available in parts of four more cities -- Atlanta, Detroit, Indianapolis and Washington, said the carrier Wednesday. Customers need one of five new handsets available from Verizon to take advantage of the new service, it said. It plans to offer 5G in parts of 30 cities by year-end, it said.
Nokia officials urged the FCC to move forward on the C band for 5G, in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “While the planned 2.5 GHz band and 3.5 GHz band auctions are positive steps for mid-band spectrum in the U.S., they do not remove the urgency of moving forward with the 3.7 GHz band,” Nokia said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-122. “Terrestrial wireless spectrum in the mid-band is critical to the United States keeping pace globally in the ‘Race to 5G.’ Nokia outlined the most recent international developments where spectrum allocation and product development and deployment planning in mid-band continue ahead of the U.S.”
Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray dove deep on T-Mobile’s 5G spectrum strategy, during a call with analysts Friday as it got the federal antitrust nod to buy Sprint (see 1907260071). The goal is combining low-, mid- and high-band spectrum, he said: “That’s absolutely critical for the type of 5G service that customers can use on a ubiquitous basis. … You need all of those elements.” T-Mobile is mostly invested in the 24 GHz band but has built out 28 GHz licenses and is the first U.S. carrier with millimeter-wave coverage maps, he said. “You can absolutely use millimeter-wave where there are large concentrations of people, where the population exists,” but not to serve the whole country, Ray said. T-Mobile covers 150 million POPs with 600 MHz spectrum, up 50 percent in one quarter, he said. “We are going to bring large, very large-scale coverage on 5G to the U.S. this year, and nationwide as we move into 2020.” The company doesn’t “trash” viability of high-band spectrum, said CEO John Legere. “We have made fun of a millimeter-wave only strategy -- it won’t work.” High-band across the U.S. would cost $1.5 trillion to build, he said.
AT&T Q2 results were mixed, Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche told investors Thursday. AT&T reported Wednesday (see 1907240053). “With exception of wireless phone adds, sub trends were weaker than expected but the EBITDA & [free-cash flow] beat -- offering evidence of AT&T’s focus on profitable customer relationships is paying off.” Video subscriptions will continue to see declines as AT&T “works through the remaining [one million] subs left on pricing promotions and as it prepares for its launches of AT&T TV,” she said. AT&T was upgraded Thursday by analysts at Credit Suisse from “underperform” to “neutral.”
North America will jump out in front first as 5G leader, but it will be quickly surpassed by Asia-Pacific, IHS Markit said Wednesday. By 2023, Asia Pacific will have a 5G installed base of 785 million, vs. 294 million in North America, the firm predicted. “Asia Pacific is destined for 5G market domination thanks to the massive deployment of the technology in China and India,” said Elias Aravantinos, principal analyst. “Led by deployment in these countries, 5G will reach its so-called ‘golden year’ in 2023, when 5G will be present in most handsets.”
T-Mobile said it's the first major carrier to provide LTE in the Gulf of Mexico. Wireless connectivity “has long been limited or non-existent in this heavily traveled area of the Gulf," the company said Wednesday: “Now T-Mobile has LTE coverage with this expansion of its nationwide network using 5G-ready equipment.”
Concerns about Chinese-made network equipment are widespread in the U.S., Strand Consult said in a report released Tuesday. Concern isn’t “limited to national governments and the military intelligence operations,” Strand said: “Nor is the concern confined to telecom operators which build and run networks. It is the small, medium, and large enterprises that use networks which fear that their valuable data will be surveilled, sabotaged, or stolen by actors associated with the Chinese government and military. Consequently, it is the clients of telecom operators which push to restrict Chinese-made equipment from networks.”
T-Mobile US said it will release Q2 results Thursday. The results are due at 9 a.m. EDT, with an analyst call to follow at 4:30 p.m. The call has been much anticipated given T-Mobile’s prolonged attempt to buy Sprint and an expected DOJ decision on whether to oppose that deal (see 1907220030). On Wednesday, AT&T will become the first of the major carriers to report.
The citizens broadband radio service band moved another step closer to opening. NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences released final test reports to companies that participated in testing on sharing the 3.5 GHz band. “The completed tests will drive progress toward initial commercial deployments in the band, prized for its excellent mix of capacity and coverage capabilities,” blogged Keith Gremban, director of the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences. “With 4G LTE technology for the band available today, industry has already begun to develop specifications to support 5G deployments.” The FCC plans to use the reports to certify that the spectrum access systems are complying with its rules, Gremban said Friday. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly predicts the band will likely be the first mid-band spectrum to come online for 5G (see 1904300208).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has seen an “acceleration” in the past three months in global 5G developments that will “speed up the introduction and deployment of 5G networks and smartphones in several major markets,” said CEO C.C. Wei on a Q2 call Thursday. Wei expects new product launches of premium smartphones, including those with 5G capability, to drive TSMC’s Q3 business. “We are working closely” with smartphone OEM customers “to carefully plan out capacity to meet their demand,” he said. Wei expects “implementation” of 5G in smartphones will be “stronger” and faster than that of the 4G “ramp-up,” he said.