Nokia representatives told FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly they agree with his support for “innovative business models” for offering broadband, including permitting paid prioritization. It's an "option for consumers to best control their broadband experience and for third party content providers to potentially reach new users,” Nokia said Tuesday in docket 17-183. “Paid prioritization business models also promise to restore balance in monetization of innovation across the entire value chain, to fuel robust broadband network deployment to all communities.” The Nokia reps underscored the importance of midband spectrum for 5G, especially the 3.45-3.55 and 3.7 GHz bands.

T-Mobile promised to continue to offer Lifeline service, should it get the OK to buy Sprint. “New T-Mobile has no contemplated end date to its participation in the Lifeline program, and the company has no intention to stop offering Lifeline in any state where T-Mobile and Assurance currently offer it,” the buyer wrote Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif. T-Mobile also countered Communications Workers of America complaints the company's buy of Iowa Wireless last year was bad for broadband in that state. CWA raised the issue in the context of the T-Mobile/Sprint deal. “IWireless’s 2G and 3G service was vastly inferior to the quality of T-Mobile’s mobile broadband,” T-Mobile told an aide to FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-197. “IWireless had no low-band spectrum and relatively limited 4G LTE coverage. T-Mobile is already investing more than $70 million to transform the network by building out its 600 MHz spectrum and introducing 5G-ready sites throughout Iowa.” T-Mobile and Sprint engineering staff told the FCC team reviewing the deal the companies' "three-year network migration process was designed to minimize customer disruption and provide superior user experience at all stages of the migration.” They said their combination "would drive down the cost of capacity and coverage by making more efficient use of existing spectrum and other network assets.”

T-Mobile said it has alerted customers to more than 10 billion “scam likely” calls since launching scam protection technology two years ago. The technology works on many Samsung devices. “Scammers aren’t slowing down,” the carrier said Wednesday. “So far in 2019, the Un-carrier has detected and notified customers of 225 million Scam Likely calls per week! And it’s anticipated that by the end of the year, nearly 50 percent of US mobile calls will be scams.”

Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., confirmed they plan to refile their Eliminate From Regulators Opportunities to Nationalize the Internet in Every Respect (E-Frontier) Act in the coming weeks, as expected (see 1903050069). The bill, filed last year, would bar the White House from proposing the U.S. build a national 5G network without congressional authorization (see 1807230059). Cruz and Cortez Masto bowed the legislation in response to a leaked National Security Council draft memo that proposed 5G nationalization because of concerns China could otherwise build a network (see 1801290034). If the U.S. is “to remain the global telecommunications leader and compete with China, the private sector must continue to build, deploy, and secure 5G networks moving forward,” Cruz said Tuesday. “Any proposals that consider nationalizing these networks or rely upon the heavy-hand of the U.S. government in picking winners and losers is certain to have a chilling effect on private investment, and result in a radical shift in the management of our nation’s telecommunication’s networks.” 5G nationalization “would undermine our global competitiveness by ending private investments that have fueled innovation in our country,” said Cortez Masto. “We must strengthen cooperation between the public and private sectors.” Cortez Masto and Cruz were among several senators who said they aren't convinced by attempts by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign to walk back earlier comments in favor of the government's making spectrum being reserved for 5G available to carriers on wholesale (see 1903040058).

Congress should include broadband in any infrastructure package, said Tim Donovan, Competitive Carriers Association senior vice president-legislative affairs, at a House Small Business Committee hearing Wednesday. Donovan warned 5G “is not inevitable,” especially in rural America. Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., said “for carriers both large and small, buildout in rural areas is often prohibitively expensive." After "30 years of building wireless networks,” some places still aren’t served because “there is not a business case to build out those networks with private capital alone,” Donovan said: The USF helps “but that’s not enough to close the size of the gap that we have.” Many small businesses “remain on the wrong side of a persistent digital divide,” he said. Donovan emphasized “reliable coverage maps” to help determine what areas aren’t served. “Members of this committee know that coverage is frequently overstated,” he said: “This is a cornerstone issue which must be addressed.” Donovan stressed the importance of funding, spectrum and deployment challenges. The Mobility Fund II program will pay for only part of the needed build out, he said.

It’s “hard to imagine life” in Washington without a smartphone, but the dawning of 5G means “our mobile universe is about to expand in ways unimaginable 10 years ago,” wrote CTA President Gary Shapiro Monday in the Washington Examiner. The District’s Transportation Department is weighing “guidelines” to “facilitate the introduction of 5G throughout the city,” he said. 5G’s “innovations are right around the corner, as soon as we get the necessary infrastructure in place,” he said. ”It’s only fitting that we lead the way in implementing a new technology that, through the power of connectivity, will increase opportunities for everyone.” Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and D.C. council members need to be on board “to support 5G’s rollout,” said Shapiro.

Despite all of the buzz about 5G, American Tower’s “view” is 4G “will continue to serve as the primary network for most of us for quite some time,” Senior Director-Investor Relations Igor Khislavsky told a Raymond James investment conference Monday. For the next five to 10 years, “if not longer, 4G is still going to be the underlying foundation of most mobile networks,” he said. Expect 4G “to be enhanced with 5G applications over time, especially when you get into new types of use cases for 5G,” including edge computing, autonomous driving and augmented reality, he said. As new spectrum gets deployed in the 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz bands, “equipment that's utilizing that spectrum gets placed on our towers incrementally, and that's where we benefit,” he said. The year 2021 seems a “reasonable” forecast for when the industry will “start seeing some meaningful deployments” of 5G, said Khislavsky. “The standard-setting process for 5G actually isn't complete yet,” he said. “Once you see some 5G handsets in the marketplace, once you obviously see those standards being set," it will be "a fairly rapid deployment,” he said.

If the FCC can protect incumbent C-band video delivery services, it should quickly move on an auction process for freeing up the band and reassigning some spectrum for terrestrial wireless use, Comcast told staffers from the Wireless and International bureaus and Offices of Engineering and Technology and of Economics and Analytics (OEA), according to a docket 18-122 posting Monday. It said the C-Band Alliance (CBA) approach by contrast "runs counter to the public interest" and lacks sufficient detail to show any incumbent protections. Attendees included Wireless Chief Donald Stockdale, OET Chief Julius Knapp and OEA acting Chief Giulia McHenry. Charter Communications also opposes the CBA approach (see 1902250064). T-Mobile continued its criticisms of the CBA plan. It said it's clear there would be widespread participation in an incentive auction for C-band spectrum, creating the mutual exclusivity that triggers the need to conduct an auction under the Communications Act. The carrier said nothing in the act lets the FCC issue licenses based on negotiations among private parties to avoid mutual exclusivity. Adoption of the Auction Reform Act shows Congress "specifically rejected" what the CBA is trying to do, it said. CBA didn't comment.

More than 109,000 from 198 countries and territories attended Mobile World Congress last week in Barcelona, GSMA said Friday.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to issue a “detailed and unclassified report” on participation of China and “other adversarial nations” in the international standard-setting bodies (ISSBs) affecting 5G technology. President Donald Trump's recent comments about 5G and Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE caused confusion about his future actions (see 1902210057). Senate Intelligence “has heard anecdotal concerns that China is attempting to exert pressure or political influence in the ISSBs, which have historically functioned as technological meritocracies,” the senators wrote Coats in a letter released Friday. “Not only does political influence undermine fair competition, it also raises serious economic and security concerns for 5G and future generations of wireless technologies.” The report should include “examples and case studies of attempts by China and other foreign adversaries to exert pressure or political influence within the ISSBs or at major telecommunication conferences to secure standards that are favorable to Chinese companies and patent holders, or that might introduce deficiencies into 5G networks.”