Perhaps the biggest debate on cable among investors is how much 5G could threaten the industry's broadband market share, a longtime analyst said in a video released Tuesday by Citigroup. It's “a more uncertain environment than it's been” for the industry, said Jason Bazinet. Part of that is how far 5G from small cells will propagate through structures, he told an audience: 1,500 feet as some including in cable think or 3,000 feet as 5G "bulls" expect. The answer "makes a world of difference in terms of whether or not this is real," Bazinet said, because the shorter distance means about 20 percent of Americans can get in-home 5G over wireless networks v. 60 over the longer distance. "It may in fact be a wireless technology that dismantles the cable industry." Adding to uncertainty is whether T-Mobile and Sprint succeed in combining (see 1810310051) and building such a product, since Verizon is the only other major U.S. carrier that says it will do in-home fixed 5G. In a 5G-bullish outcome, "essentially, every single broadband net add is going to go to these networks, and cable stocks are done," the analyst said. "This big tent that the cable industry built because of that big, fat coaxial wire is now really vulnerable," he said earlier: "Because if something goes wrong with the internet" product financial stability, "the whole house of cards comes crashing down." CTIA didn't reply to queries Wednesday and NCTA declined to comment.
High costs, the level of competition, spectrum issues and “ecosystem headwinds” make 5G fixed wireless “an unlikely candidate to solve rural America’s broadband challenges,” CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange research division reported Tuesday. “As Verizon begins deploying its 5G fixed wireless network in urban and suburban markets, we believe they are facing operational and technical issues that will limit the scale,” said Jeff Johnston, lead communications economist with the division. “While there may be limited use cases where the technology makes sense in urban and suburban markets, we don’t see the use of millimeter-wave spectrum in fixed wireless networks extending to rural markets.”
A study from HighSpeedInternet.com released Monday says 5G will save the average listener more than three hours when downloading a Spotify library containing up to 10,000 songs and movie viewers up to seven minutes every time they download an HD movie. Gamers will save almost seven hours on average on large game downloads, and social media users will save about two-and-a-half minutes a day, it said.
With initial comments due Monday on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band, Intel reported on meetings with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale and aides to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel. Asha Keddy, general manager of the Next Generation and Standards Group, discussed “the state of 5G, various efforts Intel has undertaken to trial and develop 5G, what other leading countries are doing to promote 5G and the consequent importance of enabling terrestrial mobile use on 3.7-4.2 GHz band expeditiously,” said a filing in docket 17-183. It underscored the advantages of a “market-based” approach. The Competitive Carriers Association said Monday the FCC should make the band available for licensed use. “Mid-band spectrum offers tremendous opportunities for carriers to deploy next-generation technologies, and the 3.7-4.2 GHz band is particularly well-suited for 4G and 5G deployment,” said CCA President Steve Berry. He asked the agency to be "mindful of protecting incumbents that serve unserved" and underserved consumers.
AT&T said it successfully completed the world’s first millimeter-wave mobile 5G browsing session using a standards-based device on a mobile 5G network. The test took place Thursday night using a Netgear Nighthawk 5G Mobile Hotspot, the carrier said Friday. The development is “a seminal moment in the advancement of mobile 5G technology,” said David Christopher, president-AT&T Mobility and Entertainment. “This proves we are well on our way to the promise of mobile 5G for consumers.”
The GPS Innovation Alliance and ACT|The App Association highlighted benefits of 5G in a blog post Wednesday. Tops was agriculture. "High-precision GPS-enabled automated steering of tractors delivers accuracy to within a few centimeters,” the groups said. “This accuracy reduces unnecessary waste of critical resources, including water, seed, and fertilizer. Similarly, a 60-minute drone flight used to survey crops or livestock can typically collect 3 gigabytes of raw data.”
Verizon’s fixed 5G offering is a success, Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis said Tuesday on an earnings call he billed as the first such in this fifth-generation era. The pilot went live Oct. 1 in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento (see 1810010028). “We've seen performance as we've expected since we started doing … installs,” Ellis said. “The technology works, our customers are getting the experience they expected and we are getting a lot of good learning which will benefit us next year when we rollout the product to that much larger audience.” Ellis said Verizon is well positioned. “True 5G requires an ultra-wideband solution, utilizing millimeter-wave spectrum to address the full array of use cases that 5G enables," as well as deep fiber, lots of small cells, the right spectrum holdings and “mobile edge computing capabilities," he said. "All of which we have been assembling for years.” Verizon is pushing gear-makers to move as quickly as possible on 5G, Ellis said: “We will be ready to deploy both on the network side and the customer side when the equipment is ready.” Ellis said the carrier appreciates FCC work to speed up siting of wireless infrastructure. “Our teams have been engaged with municipalities across the country on getting permits to put up small cells whether for 4G or 5G,” he said. “We are going as fast as we can. And while the federal level rules are helpful, [siting] is still a very local activity municipality-by-municipality.” Verizon reported net income of $5 billion in Q3, compared with $3.7 billion the same period last year, on revenue of $32.6 billion. Verizon had 515,000 retail postpaid net adds, including 510,000 postpaid smartphone adds. “Verizon estimates the market opportunity for 5G Home is about 30 million homes nationwide as the operator expands the availability of the services over the next several years, likely targeting markets where it has the most opportunity to poach subscribers seeking an alternative to limited and/or relatively expensive available broadband options,” said Technology Business Research.
It’s too early to forecast when the 5G rollout might start benefiting Corning’s optical glass fiber business, said CEO Wendell Weeks on a Tuesday earnings call. “I would characterize 5G as being in the beginning,” said Weeks. “We’re just really at the early stages of the deployment of infrastructure needed to have a 5G service level.” Some of the first deployments “you see out of different carriers are some of the easier ones,” said Weeks. “You’re really going to see the demand for our products get stronger and stronger as you have to support full mobility for 5G. That’s also going to take phones getting upgraded to 5G. So we’re just right in the beginning, and we’ve got a long, long way to go to get that much glass in the ground.”
5G Americas projects rapid growth for 5G, with 5 billion people accessing the internet via mobile by 2025, and 5G accounting for about 14 percent of connections. “More than a quarter of all global mobile subscribers are using LTE and it’s expected that by 2021 this will increase to more than half,” it reported Tuesday. Standards work is continuing, it said. “Definition of the study items and work items was completed in July 2018, on schedule." Release 16, “or phase 2 of 5G, will primarily address any outstanding issues in [release]-15, expansion of 5G technology features and increased 5G efficiency.”
Silicon Labs announced an LTE-M expansion kit for its EFM32 Giant Gecko 11 starter kit to accelerate development of gateways and devices that operate in deep-sleep mode and require extended battery life, it said Monday. The ready-to-deploy solution uses a Digi XBee3 modem that’s said to be future-ready for 5G technologies. Applications include smart energy and smart cities.