Intel will exit the 5G smartphone modem business and “complete an assessment of the opportunities” for 4G and 5G modems in PCs, IoT devices and other products, said the company Tuesday. It won’t abandon the 5G network infrastructure business, it said. Intel will continue servicing existing 4G smartphone modem orders but won’t introduce 5G smartphone modems, “including those originally planned for launches in 2020,” because it sees “no clear path to profitability and positive returns" in that space, it said. Intel developed a “valuable portfolio” of wireless products and intellectual property for 5G, it said. “We are assessing our options to realize the value we have created, including the opportunities in a wide variety of data-centric platforms and devices in a 5G world." Intel expects to give more details about the decision on its Q1 earnings call April 25, it said.

Sprint told the FCC it won’t provide much competition without its deal with T-Mobile, said a letter posted Tuesday in docket 18-197. Meanwhile, public interest and consumer groups filed a petition urging the FCC to reject the deal. “Sprint is in a very difficult situation that is only getting worse,” the carrier said. “Sprint’s network lacks the coverage and consistency that customers demand. Sprint’s lack of low band spectrum is at the root of these network problems, and that problem cannot be fixed because there is no low band spectrum available that Sprint could buy.” Sprint said it's losing customers and seeing lower revenue and cash flow “further limiting its ability to invest in its network and service its debt. Simply put, Sprint is not on a sustainable competitive path.” Free Press, the Communications Workers of America, Common Cause, the Demand Progress Education Fund and other public interest groups said they filed 60,000 petitions at the FCC Tuesday opposing the deal. “Despite claims made by T-Mobile and Sprint executives[,] the deal would reduce competition, raise prices and result in the loss of as many as 30,000 jobs,” the groups said: “It won’t advance their stated goal of faster 5G deployment and improved rural broadband service." Industry officials said the number of petitions and how many are real is difficult to verify. On Monday, CWA reported on a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on its case against the transaction. DOJ staffers told the two companies the deal is unlikely to be approved as structured, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

Tower companies are reporting a general slowdown in carrier investment, Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche told investors Thursday. Fritzsche cited discussion at a recent dinner she hosted for tower and wireless executives. AT&T is investing but not at the same level as the end of 2018, she said: T-Mobile is still building out its 600 MHz licenses, but there's “somewhat of a pause of lighting up new capacity sites until it sees how the [Sprint] merger plays out” (see 1904110026). Verizon is “taking a breath” on macro towers, she said. It seems "Q1 is not as robust as we hoped earlier the year in terms of carrier activity,” Fritzsche said. “All executives were positive as to the long term outlook on the business but our sense is muted expectations should be in place for the March quarter.”

President Donald Trump and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai are expected to make a joint announcement Friday clarifying that the U.S. isn't headed toward a nationalized 5G network, industry and government officials said. Trump is also expected to discuss the push to deploy 5G in rural areas. Details were still emerging at our deadline. Trump has been working to associate himself with 5G and a U.S. win. National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told a CTIA event last week the U.S. definitely isn't losing the race to 5G (see 1904040048). Earlier in the week, CTIA said the U.S. is catching up with China (see 1904020004). The FCC and the White House didn’t comment.

The U.S. has “a real imperative to move quickly” on 5G, to beat China to the new technology, T-Mobile CEO John Legere blogged Thursday. One answer is for regulators to approve his carrier's buy of Sprint, he said. “We will bring our Un-carrier disruptive mentality to wireless and beyond, and we are committed to investing $40 billion to deliver the first broad AND deep truly nationwide 5G network.” The current situation won’t be enough, he said. “We are currently stuck with a status quo that is just not working,” Legere wrote. “If we leave it up to AT&T and Verizon, we’ll be stuck with a spotty, thin, incomplete 5G infrastructure for YEARS. We’ve covered this before, but the abysmal, do-as-little-as-possible approach to 5G rollout so far is proof that AT&T and Verizon won’t change unless they are forced to change.” Verizon and AT&T didn't comment.

The International Electrotechnical Commission published a technical report on evaluating human exposure to RF fields in the vicinity of base stations, including for the first time 5G base stations and small cells. “It illustrates test methods and worked examples on 5G trial sites,” IEC said Wednesday.

Questions about Huawei speak to the future of the internet and 5G, said Claude Barfield, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, in an interview AEI posted Wednesday: “Other nations are watching the United States as to how we react and how we challenge, or choose not to challenge, China.” Barfield said President Donald Trump appears to be most focused on the trade deficit in China policy. The Chinese say U.S. complaints are tied to the U.S. “pushing its own companies,” he said. “We have no dog in this fight.” The two main alternatives to Huawei are Ericsson and Nokia, both foreign, he noted. “Are they going to be adequate substitutes?” Barfield said. “If they’re not, what do you do? The administration has not really faced up to that.” So far, there’s no evidence the Chinese government has intervened, he said. “The problem with that though, is that we are just beginning 5G.” Huawei and the Chinese Embassy didn't comment. Strand Consult, meanwhile, said it's launching ChinaTechThreat.com "to focus on cybersecurity challenges and how they affect the telecom and other industries."

T-Mobile and Amazon are bringing Prime Video to TVision Home, the carrier’s rebranded version of Layer3 TV. T-Mobile sees the service as an alternative to cable and promoted its TV offering as part of its arguments for regulators to approve the company buy of Sprint. TVision customers with a Prime membership will have access to the programming. “5G will transform entertainment, and the New T-Mobile will transform 5G if our merger with Sprint is approved,” said T-Mobile President Mike Sievert. Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche told investors Wednesday TVision is more than a “Hail Mary” pass to win approval for the Sprint deal. This plan will move forward with or without” Sprint, she thinks. The service will be available starting Sunday in T-Mobile stores and online in Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and Longmont, Colorado, at $90 monthly for +150 channels, she said. T-Mobile’s TV offering isn’t very disruptive, wrote BTIG’s Walter Piecyk. “T-Mobile is offering a service that is nearly identical to those from existing providers, even down to the remote control, which actually has legacy cable buttons of red, green, yellow and blue,” he said. “The price point is not compelling at $100 per month.”

Verizon and San Diego signed a multimillion-dollar agreement to speed 5G wireless small-cells infrastructure deployment, Verizon said Monday. A streamlined permitting process will quickly enhance wireless service and expand smart-city capabilities, said Verizon, which agreed to invest more than $100 million on infrastructure and equipment. The company plans to give 500 smartphones to the San Diego Police Department and 50 tablets to the Fire-Rescue Department, and install advanced traffic data gathering and sensing equipment at five intersections with frequent accidents. Verizon will do an inventory of about 60,000 city-owned light poles, updating and digitizing city information on poles while attaching fiber and small cells, it said. Mayor Kevin Faulconer (R) said the agreement will “provide resources that will further enhance cellular service for residents, keep communities safer and lower costs for taxpayers.”

If the FCC backs its plan for freeing up C-band spectrum for 5G terrestrial use, 60 MHz along with a 20 MHz guard band could be freed up within 18 months of an order in 46 of top 50 partial economic areas, the C-Band Alliance said in a docket 18-122 filing Tuesday on how it would implement that transition. That spectrum would be at 3700-3780 MHz. The remaining spectrum in those PEAs -- 3760-3880 MHz -- and the full 180 MHz in all other PEAs would be freed up within 36 months, it said. CBA said it anticipates initially using two different types of filters on earth stations in that first wave of spectrum clearing -- one for those top 46 PEAs operating in 3900-4200 MHz and a separate one for those at 3780-3900 MHz. By the end of 36 months, everyone would have migrated to the type of filter used in the PEAs operating in the 3900-4200 MHz range. CBA repeated that all filter costs would be covered, as would repointing receive antennas or any equipment replacements needed because repointing can't be done. It said SES and Intelsat are talking with satellite manufacturers about trying to speed up building and launching the geostationary orbit satellites that would be required, discussing issues like increased commonality between satellite components and a parallel manufacturing process. Of the estimated eight satellites that would be needed, two would be ground spares, one would be an in-orbit spare and five would replace current satellites in orbit. CBA cited work it has done since late 2017, including a needs assessment of current satellite capacity and customer needs, earth station filter design and testing.