T-Mobile is expanding its $50-a-month Home Internet pilot to more than 130 additional municipalities in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wisconsin, the carrier said Monday. The "pandemic has underscored the importance of broadband connectivity, and how sorry the state of home broadband is for many in America -- especially those in rural communities that have been undervalued and underserved by traditional cable providers and ISPs for years,” T-Mobile said.

IEE Sensing spoke with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff on “the need for an Unattended Child Detection functionality in automobiles in order to prevent deaths by vehicular heatstroke, and how the VitaSense sensor will be able to provide that capability.” The company asked whether it needs a waiver to enable the VitaSense “to operate in the 60-64 GHz band when operations were limited to times during which the vehicle was completely stopped,” per a Monday filing in docket 20-144.

The Rural Wireless Association asked for clarity on whether providers eligible for reimbursement will get funds before adoption of final rules requiring they replace equipment from nonsecure vendors, in a call with an aide to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. RWA noted it earlier filed a petition for declaratory ruling. “Action on the Petition or better yet adoption of rules is crucial to removing eligible providers’ uncertainty,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-89.

MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett told investors he's skeptical about the benefits of 5G in general, but T-Mobile is the exception. “At the industry level, 5G will require enormous capital investment but promises very little in the way of incremental revenue,” Nathanson said: “T-Mobile, on the other hand, can benefit from 5G simply by taking share. T-Mobile’s 5G network will be the first to offer significant midband coverage, and therefore to deliver meaningfully higher-than-4G speeds, and that advantage is likely to last for years into the future.” The biggest surprise in T-Mobile results Thursday (see 2011050062) was the “capture” of $600 million in network synergies in 2020, said New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin. Management “expects this to escalate in 2021 and seemed to say the network integration would be complete in 2022,” he said. Subscriber growth also exceeded expectations, he said.

The FCC’s draft 5.9 GHz order doesn’t “provide sufficient certainty” for cellular vehicle-to-everything to launch quickly, 5G Automotive Alliance members warned. ‘Provide C-V2X access to the 5.9 GHz band as soon as possible,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-138: “The draft ruling proposes a lengthy, potentially indefinite ‘transition period’ for C-V2X operations. This transition poses significant constraints in bringing this safety technology to American travelers.” Immediately allow C-V2X roadside unit operations in the upper 30 MHz of the band reserved for C-V2X, the companies said. Ford Motor Company, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US, BMW Group, Daimler North America, T-Mobile, Nokia and Qualcomm were among the members signing the letter. Qualcomm has made similar arguments (see 2011050048). The FCC is to vote on the order Nov. 18.

Antitrust authorities cleared the way for Verizon to acquire four entities. FTC early termination notices dated Wednesday and released Thursday ended the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period for acquisitions of Duo County Telephone Cooperative, Kentucky RSA #3 Cellular General Partnership, Brandenburg Communications and South Central Rural Telecommunications Cooperative.

The FCC’s draft 5.9 GHz order won’t give industry immediate use of 30 MHz of the band proposed for cellular vehicle-to-everything technologies, Qualcomm warned in a call with an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “C-V2X is ready to be deployed across America today and therefore needs the spectrum now,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-138. “Ford and other automakers want to sell cars equipped with highly advanced C-V2X technology, and state and local transportation agencies are ready to install CV2X roadside units."

American Tower agreed to buy InSite Wireless Group, which owns and operates some 3,000 communications sites, mostly in the U.S. and Canada, for $3.5 billion, American Tower said Thursday. It adds to “our foundational U.S. business through the addition of a well-run, high-quality, complementary, macro-tower focused portfolio, while also marking our entry into Canada,” said CEO Tom Bartlett. InSite has 1,400 towers in the U.S., more than 200 in Canada and about 70 distributed antenna system networks in the U.S., the company said. “The purchase multiple of 30x tower cash flow is high relative to historical US tower deals” but is expected to immediately add to earnings, New Street’s Spencer Kurn told investors. “The relative underexposure of InSite to the big three wireless carriers should yield faster growth on their portfolio relative to [American Tower’s] existing US towers,” he said. “We like the deal, accretive on day 1, bolstering [American Tower’s] position in the early innings of 5G cycle,” Credit Suisse said.

Apple representatives urged approval of revised 6 GHz rules allowing very-low-power devices at 14 dBm effective isotropic radiated power, in a call with FCC Chief Technology Officer Monisha Ghosh. “This power level is essential to ensuring that VLP devices are functional in typical high body loss cases,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. “Allowing 6 GHz mobile standard-power access points in the U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 bands controlled by Automatic Frequency Coordination systems will provide significant benefits while protecting incumbents.” Verizon asked aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks to act on its petition for reconsideration seeking higher power for unlicensed standard-power 6 GHz access points subject to AFC control (see 2011030021). Southern Co. raised 6 GHz interference concerns. A recent cable industry study “underestimates the number of Very Low Power devices, their transmissions, and a variety of other link budget parameters to falsely support the claims that licensed fixed microwave systems would be protected from harmful interference,” the utility said. NAB raised concerns about proposed test procedures for unlicensed devices in the band, speaking with Office of Engineering and Technology staff. It’s “unclear what division of OET was making final determinations on those procedures, which is troubling given that the Laboratory Division’s draft publication appears to include arbitrary requirements that are not found in the Commission’s order in this proceeding and will fail to protect licensed users of the band,” NAB said. The FCC didn't comment.

T-Mobile added a company record 2 million postpaid subscribers in Q3 to bring its customer rolls to 100 million, the carrier said Thursday. That includes 689,000 postpaid phone net adds. The carrier reported $341 million in COVID-19-related expenses and $352 million in free cash flow, headed into upcoming FCC spectrum auctions. Free cash flow was $1.1 billion a year ago. The U.S. “has never seen anything like this network build,” CEO Mike Sievert said on a financial call, noting the company moved further ahead of AT&T on total customers. T-Mobile plans to offer 5G nationwide using its 2.5 GHz spectrum by the end of next year, he said. The band has both “massive capacity and … reach, measured in miles from our towers,” he said. T-Mobile’s low-band network already covers 270 million people, he said. “T-Mobile’s momentum has continued to accelerate quarter after quarter, as we profitably take share and outpace the competition,” he said: “We surprised the skeptics, and the optimists, yet again. … We’re working hard to go big and to go fast.” The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges “with a much slower switching environment than a year ago,” Sievert said. T-Mobile reported $1.2 billion in earnings on revenue of $19.3 billion. That compares with $870 million and $11 billion a year ago, before the Sprint buy closed. Some 79.7 million subscribers had post-paid and 20.6 million prepaid plans. Postpaid churn was 0.9%, a slight increase over the first two quarters of the year. T-Mobile “remains highly confident” it will deliver $43 billion of synergies from the Sprint deal, with $1.2 billion this year and more than twice that likely next year. Sievert credited avoided site builds and a streamlined marketing push. T-Mobile is also consolidating back office operations. It shut off the Sprint brand for new customer sales at the start of August.