The value of unlicensed spectrum to the U.S. economy grew 129 percent to $525.19 billion since 2013, said a study released Thursday by WifiForward. It's expected to reach $834.48 billion by 2020, boosted by "persistent growth in existing applications and technology" and "deployment of 5G networks, the efficiency contribution of IoT in vertical markets and an expansion of the Bluetooth-enabled ecosystem,” said study author Raul Katz, president of Telecom Advisory Services.

Verizon representatives discussed the need for the FCC to make more high- and midband spectrum available for 5G, said a filing in docket 17-183 on meetings including Commissioners Mike O’Reilly and Brendan Carr. “We outlined the need for the Commission to move quickly to adopt a notice of proposed rulemaking exploring the possibility of making spectrum available for mobile broadband in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band,” Verizon said. “To be effective, any approach would have to free up well more than 100 MHz.” Verizon officials stressed the need to “reorganize” the 39 GHz band before it's ready for auction. “The Commission should encourage incumbent licensees to commercially negotiate license swaps to reorganize and rationalize the 39 GHz band as soon as possible,” the carrier said. “Rationalization of this band can occur much more quickly through such market-based efforts rather than through more complex Commission auctions.”

The main wireless carrier associations and other groups said they met with FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on the latest discussions on the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. O’Rielly, overseeing a rewrite of the CBRS rules, urged stakeholders to negotiate (see 1802130041). “The parties continued to discuss their respective positions regarding the geographic licensing areas for Priority Access Licenses in the 3.5 GHz band,” said a filing in docket 17-258. “The parties also continued to reiterate the importance of the 3.5 GHz band to serving a variety of business cases and deployment plans.” Officials from the Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, General Electric, NCTA, NTCA, the Rural Wireless Association and Wireless ISP Association attended. The principals met O’Rielly in April (see 1805010052).

NTIA will be responsive to industry calls for government action to promote 5G deployment, Administrator David Redl said in a speech at a Commerce Department export conference. The U.S. wireless industry “is already making significant investments in preparation,” and is looking for government action, Redl said: “We need to heed their call.” Redl noted he has been passionate about spectrum policy. “Advances in technology are enabling innovations that we couldn’t even imagine just 10 years ago,” he said in the Monday speech. “Yet there’s still so much we don’t know about how spectrum is actually used.” The 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band is likely to be a key component of 5G and NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences in Boulder, Colorado, is “working hard with our Office of Spectrum Management to put forward an exciting sharing model” in the band, he said. “To ensure America’s 5G leadership, the entire government must work in a coordinated fashion to support the industry’s 5G push,” Redl said. “From our perspective at NTIA, this support will take four forms: making spectrum available, removing obstacles to deploying infrastructure, ensuring we have a collective strategy to secure 5G networks, and collaborating on the global standards.”

Sprint added New York, Phoenix and its home base of Kansas City to cities where it will offer 5G next year. The three join Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington. “Additional markets will be announced as Sprint is planning to roll out its blazing fast mobile 5G service nationwide using its large amount of mid-band 2.5 GHz spectrum,” said a Tuesday news release.

Verizon plans to launch 5G services in Los Angeles by Q4, CEO Lowell McAdam said Tuesday on CNBC, which the company later confirmed. Verizon earlier announced Sacramento as one of three to five cities to get 5G later this year (see 1804240059). The carrier will deploy more than 1,000 cellsites for the launch in California cities, McAdam said. He also noted a strong Verizon partnership with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh (D). Verizon has been “plowing money” into 5G for the past three years and expects it to be more disruptive than previous wireless generations, he said. The carrier is busting myths about 5G, including that millimeter-wave spectrum requires line of sight and doesn’t go through foliage, he said. The technology will bring a different pricing model, with the old model of charging $90-100 per subscriber per month going “out the window” with 5G, said McAdam. The company is focused on digital content and has “no interest in [acquiring] a linear content company,” he said.

AT&T’s build of FirstNet and 5G go “hand in hand,” CEO Randall Stephenson said Tuesday at a JPMorgan financial conference. “We're in deployment mode” on FirstNet, Stephenson said. “When we won the FirstNet bid, we were given a charge by the U.S. government to extend our network, to densify our network, more cellsite coverage throughout rural America to harden our network, meaning making it resilient in storms and so forth, especially in the hurricane corridor, the earthquake corridors,” Stephenson said. “The government is compensating us to go and do this to our network.” Every time AT&T works on a cellsite, it’s doing two things, he said. “First is 5G,” he said. “All of the technical work is being done at the cellsite. So when 5G is out, we literally have a software upgrade to move to true 5G, but then also working our 5G evolution.” With the 20 MHz of 700 MHz FirstNet spectrum, AT&T has 60 MHz of “fallow” spectrum it’s using for 5G, he said. AT&T’s top priority for 2018 is closing on buying Time Warner (see 1805150002), Stephenson said. “We are now at that place where … all of the arguing and explaining is done,” he said. “It's now in the hands of [U.S. District] Judge [Richard] Leon and he has committed to having a ruling … out on June 12.”

Fox Sports, with Fox Innovation Lab and partners AT&T, Ericsson and Intel, will stream 4K video over 5G for “potential broadcast” nationwide at the U.S. Open Championship June 14-17 in Southampton, New York, it said Tuesday. Fox will use 5G wireless technology to transmit 4K HDR images from two cameras at the seventh hole through the network’s production truck, making it available to Fox Sports viewers through DirecTV, it said. The 5G technology, deployed for the first time at broad scale earlier this year by Intel and partners at the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, could, in the future, deliver “disruptive abilities” to broadcasters and consumers, including real-time virtual reality views, Fox said. A network goal is to “aggressively explore evolving technologies as part of our live sports production,” said Michael Davies, Fox Sports senior vice president-field and technical operations, “in preparation for what will become the industry standards.” Intel is providing its 5G mobile trial platform device to deliver the 5G to IP translation. AT&T will use millimeter-wave spectrum to deliver the 5G connection, and Ericsson is providing the 5G radios, baseband, simulated network core and 4K video encoder and decoder.

Ericsson encouraged the FCC to provide certainty for high-frequency bands other than 28 and 24 GHz, the two bands now set for auction. “In support of a rapid launch of 5G services, Ericsson has invested heavily in product development efforts” in high-frequency bands, the company said in docket 14-177. “While the recent announcement of the 24 & 28 GHz auction has created momentum in 28 GHz deployments, it has created uncertainty elsewhere: 24 GHz investments are now prioritized over investments in the 37-40 GHz bands, although 24 GHz has not yet been developed for 5G.” No auction has been announced for the 37 and 39 GHz bands, Ericsson said. “Meanwhile, products developed for these frequency bands must adapt to the existing band rules that are not very suitable for some 5G use cases or deployment scenarios. Ericsson and other industry members must develop an interim ecosystem instead of the envisioned bandplan with 200 MHz channels.”

The 5G wireless transition should help more Americans get connected and create more competition, said outgoing FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. She urged applying lessons from past cellular transitions to 5G. "We can strive to get things right from the very beginning" said Wednesday's prepared remarks to the National Energy Marketers Association. "While 5G is absolutely critical when it comes to innovative new technologies and networks, such as the 'Internet of Things' and 'smarter' cities, as well as technology that will help unleash the next wave of smart grid features and efficiency, leaving behind those areas that are rural or have low net worth would be a tragic error." The "benefits must be ubiquitous if we are to collectively benefit. As we auction spectrum, and facilitate infrastructure builds for this purpose, why not seize the opportunity to leap frog the status quo when it comes to competition and deployment?" she said. "Too many in our communities are still waiting for a 3G or 4G future." The FCC and industry should make policy and investment decisions "that quickly bring these communities up to speed," she said. "What if the Commission were to auction off 5G spectrum in a way that promotes more robust competition and incentivizes new competitors in markets across the country?"