Market uncertainty over the “T-Mobile/Sprint conversation” is partly to blame for the “halting nature” of the 5G infrastructure “spend out there, at least as it relates to the contractors and the integrators doing work for those carriers,” said RF Industries CEO Rob Dawson on a Q1 call Tuesday. His company supplies interconnects and other wireless-infrastructure products. That the deal's regulatory review seems to keep “starting and stopping” doesn't “necessarily help any of us get a clear sense of a forecast of real timing” on the 5G buildout, he said. “I'm hoping that gets resolved one way or the other here in the next quarter or so.” Dawson thinks carriers “are clearly committed to deploying 5G in multiple cities” this year, but “I don't think we're close” to any “full-blown spend,” he said. “We're certainly seeing it ramp up,” but nowhere to the point of what it “will be, ultimately,” he said. “I'd be surprised if we get a full-blown spend this calendar year.”
The Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management asked the FCC Public Safety Bureau for waiver to test wireless emergency alerts April 11, starting at 1:45 p.m. CDT. The county wants to do the test before FCC WEA end-to-end testing rules take effect in May, said a Tuesday filing in docket 15-91.
Verizon will begin its 5G “Ultra Wideband Network” in Chicago and Minneapolis April 11, with a launch in 30 cities by the end of the year, the company said Wednesday. It will start offering the new 5G moto mod, exclusive to the carrier, nationwide Thursday. “Continuing our track record of 5G ‘firsts,’ we are thrilled to bring the first 5G-upgradeable smartphone exclusively to Verizon customers," said Chief Technology Officer Kyle Malady.
Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld slammed an FCC draft Further NPRM for not taking privacy into account in rules requiring carriers be able to find callers to 911 with greater accuracy. The FNPRM is to be voted on Friday (see 1902210048). Feld filed on a call he received from an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks asking about that issue. “The failure of the FNPRM to mention privacy or security is inexcusable in light of continued revelations that carriers appear to be unable to protect properly customer real-time geolocation information,” Feld said in docket 07-114, posted Wednesday. “Only last week, Vice ran a third story on the ease with which stalkers, bounty hunters and debt collectors and others can obtain access to [assisted GPS] information.”
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.
The FCC should preserve the educational broadcast service band and retain a preference for educational institutions and tribal nations for new EBS licenses, said the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition in meetings last week with Chairman Ajit Pai, aides to the other four commissioners and the Wireless Bureau, recounted a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-120. Letting such entities get the licenses would complement auctions in other bands, and public-private partnerships could allow them to pair with commercial providers to deploy rural service, SHLB said. The large commercial carriers that would likely win EBS licenses in an auction would be unlikely to deploy to rural areas, it said.
T-Mobile slammed arguments by the 4Competition Coalition (4CC) that U.S. mobile broadband prices are some of the highest in the industrialized world and that an example from Europe demonstrates T-Mobile's buying Sprint would result in even higher prices. 4CC cited the four-to-three combination of T-Mobile Nederland and Orange. That “resulted in price increases of between 10 percent and 17 percent compared to control countries,” 4CC said. The group cited a similar example from Austria. The claims “are false, as actual data before and after mergers in the European Union demonstrates,” T-Mobile said in FCC docket 18-197, posted Tuesday. “Against this data, the opponents present only one, cherry-picked study from a pay-to-play operator that uses a bogus and results-driven methodology.”
The Utilities Technology Council is making a “concerted effort” to raise the importance of spectrum for monitoring and control of utility networks at the upcoming World Radio Communication conference, UTC reported Tuesday on why 5G is important for utilities. There's "hype around all things ‘5G’" that "dominates the global telecommunications landscape,” said President Joy Ditto. “In spite of all we hear about the ‘Race to 5G,’" and "while the impact of 5G wireless service could be profound, it is years away from being widely deployed.” Fifth-generation could help with the ultra-reliable low latency communications important to utilities, but questions remain, UTC said. “Even if the 5G network were optimized for this particular application by deployment of infrastructure closer to the end points, the costs of this additional equipment would be prohibitive if only required for this specialist application.” New 5G networks with millimeter-wave technology “will require much denser infrastructure -- dense networks of small cells, an order of magnitude greater than currently,” UTC said. “This presents enormous challenges in finding sites, powering the base stations and backhauling the data.”
Huawei reminded the FCC of tweets by President Donald Trump last month on the importance of 5G and the U.S. winning the race to the next generation of wireless through competition (see 1902210057). The FCC is considering actions it might take to counter the threat from companies that pose a security threat to U.S. communications networks or the communications supply chain (see 1812210032). “If the best equipment for a particular network function is manufactured by a foreign company, Americans will still benefit from use of that equipment in U.S. wireless networks,” Huawei said in docket 18-89. “If American companies want to supply this equipment, then as President Trump said, they should win that business through competition, not by blocking out foreign competitors.” Huawei is ready to compete in the U.S., “through real competition,” the company said. Supply chain security is a legitimate concern, but “all equipment used by U.S. telecommunications carriers is potentially vulnerable to threats from multiple vectors,” Huawei said.
The Commerce Department got until May 29 to file a brief on VTDigger’s appeal of the local news organization's Freedom of Information Act case against FirstNet, the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals ordered (in Pacer) Monday. Commerce requested that deadline (see 1903070016).