T-Mobile and Sprint said economists Mark Israel, Michael Katz and Bryan Keating presented updated economic data to the FCC transaction team reviewing their deal. The economists offered numbers for 2019 and 2020, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-197. “Consumers benefit from the merger in each and every year from 2019 through the foreseeable future, with a net present value for consumers of $359 billion, which corresponds to gains of $1,036 per subscriber.” Staffers for both companies and lawyers working on the deal attended. Meanwhile, Sprint CEO Michel Combes and other staff met all five commissioners. “Sprint’s representatives discussed the financial, network, and scale challenges Sprint faces, how the proposed merger would address those challenges as well as spur competition, and the deployment of 5G in the United States,” Sprint said. T-Mobile John Legere blogged Wednesday on how the deal will be good for competition. It "will make wireless and in-home broadband MUCH more competitive because we will finally have the scale and capacity to challenge the entrenched Big Guys like never before and break into new opportunities to benefit consumers," Legere wrote. "We’ve already been kicking their butts in what has been a pretty unfair fight to date… imagine what we will do when the playing field is better balanced.”

A new generation of smart cities will require 5G, said Verizon Tuesday, with one autonomous auto's daily data output equal to that of 3,000 people. "The future of connectivity isn’t just a handful of intelligent sensors chirping information back and forth at an intersection. It’s billions of devices performing highly complex, mission-critical functions, in near-real time.”

The FCC posted last week’s presentation by Ted Rappaport, founding director of NYU Wireless at New York University School of Engineering, on the importance of spectrum above 95 GHz. Rappaport presented his vision of the 6G future to commissioners before a vote on the spectrum horizons order (see 1903150054).

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, urged relatively light-touch rules in the 6 GHz band, meeting Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on Feb. 19. Public interest groups hope the FCC will authorize use of the band indoors without automated frequency control across the U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 band segments, Calabrese said, he filed in docket 18-122, posted Friday. “Failure to set a power level at which Wi-Fi can operate indoors across the entire 6 GHz band, using off-the-shelf routers and low-cost devices, would sacrifice what is likely to be the greatest benefit of this rulemaking,” Calabrese said: “Without affordable, do-it-yourself access to the 850 megahertz in U-NII-5 and U-NII-7, a majority of homes and small businesses in particular will likely be limited to a single 160 megahertz channel between 6.875 and 7.125 GHz.” Replies were due Monday on a 6 GHz NPRM (see 1903180047).

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance sent members and customers a fact sheet Monday trying to set the record straight on the future of the 700 MHz T band. It was repurposed for commercial use by the 2012 law that created FirstNet, EWA noted. “It is debatable that the Congressional decision to take this heavily used band away from public safety (and collaterally from business entities) in exchange for 700 MHz spectrum for deployment of a national public safety broadband network was prudent policy, but the private land mobile industry is now stuck with the impending consequences,” EWA said: Some "attempt to capitalize on FCC inaction and licensees’ lack of understanding of spectrum policy processes to promote premature system migrations.” Congress requires only that the FCC start an auction of the band by 2021, not clear it of incumbents, the group reminded. EWA said any licensee that leaves the band now won't receive grant money from NTIA to cover its relocation costs. Proponents of rewriting the act face a tough road in Congress, the alliance said.

The FCC asked a court to amend a tribal Lifeline ruling to clarify that several unchallenged portions of a commission order/item weren't vacated by a reversal of challenged parts (see 1902010051). The agency said petitioners challenged two changes to enhanced tribal Lifeline support in a "Fourth Report and Order" and raised certain procedural issues. "The Fourth Report and Order was promulgated as Section II of the Order under review, which also contained sections embodying four different actions taken by the Commission that petitioners did not challenge; yet, the Court appears to have vacated the Order in its entirety," said an FCC motion (in Pacer) Monday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in National Lifeline Association v. FCC in docket 18-1026. "The FCC requests that the Court amend the opinion to make clear that its decision vacates only Section II (the Fourth Report and Order section) of the Order, as well as the relevant portions of the Order’s Ordering Clauses." That will keep in effect an unchallenged order on reconsideration, memorandum opinion and order, NPRM and notice of inquiry, said the agency. It said it was authorized to say petitioners don't oppose the motion. A NaLA representative didn't comment.

Local governments gave no “compelling reason” for the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to proceed with review of the September wireless infrastructure order while reconsideration is pending, the FCC said Thursday. “Any such review would be premature, and could even prove unnecessary.” Localities said abating court review would cause significant hardship (see 1903070059). The FCC noted the 10th Circuit in January denied a stay on local governments not showing irreparable harm (see 1901110018).

Unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band may pose a threat to ultra-wideband devices Germany’s Marquardt manufactures, it said in early reply comments in FCC docket 18-295. Replies are due Monday. “It is very important for us and our customers that UWB with [its] demanding power limitations can continue to operate unhindered,” the company said. “Award only the least amount of spectrum required, and at as low a frequency as possible.” Earlier, the UWB Alliance said the FCC should authorize unlicensed use of only the 5.925-6.1 GHz part of the band, with out-of-band emissions below 61 dBm/MHz.

Complexity of radio components for 5G will lead to higher smartphone prices that could impede 5G, Strategy Analytics reported Thursday. New sub-6 bands for 5G, license shared access, uplink carrier aggregation, MIMO and millimeter wave present “stiff technical challenges” to RF component suppliers Skyworks, Broadcom, Qorvo, Murata, Qualcomm and others, and will require cost-effective solutions to the more complex radio needs of 5G phones and user equipment, said SA. In the past five years, RF systems have transitioned from discrete filters, switches and amplifiers to largely system-in-package RF front-end modules encompassing multiple technologies in a single package, noted analyst Stephen Entwistle. The resulting consolidation among RF front-end component suppliers has benefited Qualcomm as a supplier of the entire radio system, he said. Pressure on suppliers will increase with 5G: Those that can supply more complex and sophisticated modules and SoCs at attractive prices will see a revenue opportunity, he said.

CTIA, Sprint, TracFone and regulators explored a possible application program interface between a Lifeline national verifier and providers that "can both enable efficient verification for eligible low-income consumers and safeguard program integrity." Parties "discussed the benefits of incorporating APIs between the [NV] and Lifeline providers’ websites in order to minimize duplicative burdens on eligible low-income consumers," filed CTIA on a meeting it and members had with FCC and Universal Service Administrative Co. staffers, posted Thursday in docket 17-287. "APIs to Lifeline providers’ websites could also facilitate the application process, reduce burdens on USAC, and enhance program integrity."