Zinwave, which provides distributed antenna systems for in-building connectivity, unveiled a system architecture Thursday it said supports 5G networks and open radio access network capability. With it, Zinwave will provide “complete, 5G-ready indoor connectivity networks with minimal deployment time regardless of which spectrum (low, mid or millimeter wave) wireless operators choose to deploy,” said the company.

Samsung joined the O-RAN Alliance, formed last year to promote an open connectivity infrastructure around optical regional advanced network nomenclature, said the company Thursday. The alliance’s aim is to “integrate greater intelligence into the radio access networks of next-generation wireless systems,” said Samsung. Its “open approach” enables the use of artificial intelligence to help service operators “better manage their networks through automation, as they evolve to 5G,” it said.

Verizon plans to launch a 5G ultra-wideband network in more than 30 U.S. cities in 2019, Verizon executives said at an investors meeting in New York. “Verizon 5G Mobility will launch in the first half of 2019, and Verizon 5G Home will expand coverage to more markets in the second half of 2019,” the carrier said. 5G Mobility and 5G Home revenues “will begin to scale next year and are expected to contribute more meaningfully to growth in 2021.” A new mobile edge computing platform, to “enable real-time enterprise applications,” is planned for Q4, Verizon said. Verizon said its 4G LTE network now covers 2.6 million square miles: “The network coverage includes LTE Advanced features in 1,500 markets across the country, which provide significantly more capacity and faster peak data speeds.”

Even if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decides NTCH has standing to challenge a pair of FCC orders related to the H-block auction -- which it doesn't -- those auction procedures were reasonable, backed by the record and accounted for statutory directives concerning auction proceeds use, DOJ said Tuesday in a docket 18-1241 appellee brief (in Pacer). NTCH sued after the agency upheld a Wireless Bureau waiver request it was appealing (see 1808160065). DOJ said the FCC had sought comment on Dish Network's waiver request months before start of auction bidding, so bidders were capable of considering it when deciding whether and how much to bid for H-block licenses. And it said Dish's waiver was conditioned on protecting H-block licensees from interference, so no H-block bidder was at a competitive disadvantage in the auction. NTCH outside counsel didn't comment Thursday.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s FAA UAS Symposium 2019, postponed from February because of the partial federal shutdown, will take place June 3-5. The conference, at the Baltimore Convention Center, is widely seen as a key public forum on drones. The agenda is being finalized.

A GSM Association study found that 80 percent of women in low- and middle-income countries own mobile phones, but a gender gap still exists. Women remain 10 percent less likely than men to own a mobile phone in low- and middle-income countries and 23 percent less likely to use mobile internet, GSMA found. The gender gap is widest in South Asia, where women are 28 percent less likely than men to own a wireless device and 58 percent less likely to use mobile internet. “We are seeing significantly increased mobile access for women, however in an increasingly connected world, women are still being left behind,” said Mats Granryd, director general, GSMA. “While mobile connectivity is spreading quickly, it is not spreading equally.”

New York City warned in a Tuesday filing that opening the 6 GHz band to unlicensed use would cost the city money and any changes would take time to complete. “The City expends considerable financial and human resources to ensure that its public safety mission critical radio communications systems are reliable under all circumstances,” it said in docket 18-295, responding to the 6 GHz NPRM. The proposals “if enacted as written, will force the City to re-design many of its microwave backhaul links in order to ensure that the City’s mission critical land mobile radio systems continue to perform to public safety reliability standards under all conditions.” The city is concerned that in cases where fixed service (FS) microwave receivers are located in or on high buildings “within dense urban areas, a transmitting unlicensed device may interfere with the weak signal present at FS microwave receivers supporting public safety or critical infrastructure land mobile radio operations,” the filing said. The city is also concerned about restrictions on new or expanded FS microwave links for public safety and other operations, it said.

Boeing Chief Technology Officer Greg Hyslop met with top staff from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology on spectrum for unmanned aerial vehicles and the future of wireless, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295. Hyslop urged the FCC to launch rulemaking proceedings on the adoption of technical and operational rules on the 5030-5091 MHz band for UAVs and an exception in Part 18 of the rules “for the certification of RF-emitting vehicle components consistent with the same exception that has long existed in Section 15.103,” Boeing said. Hyslop and others from Boeing “highlighted the need for additional spectrum available for unlicensed use inside large aircraft and to support wireless systems used in industrial settings for such purposes as automation, worker safety, operational coordination, shipping and receiving, and security, in addition to ... laptops and tablets,” the filing said. “The increases in efficiency made possible through these improvements in communications and control has dramatically increased the productivity of American factories and is driving still greater adoption of networked manufacturing using unlicensed frequencies.” In comments submitted Friday, Boeing also urged the opening of the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use. “There is a substantial need for additional spectrum available for unlicensed use, particularly in frequency bands below 24 GHz,” the company said.

The cost to Rural Wireless Association members of replacing network equipment from Huawei and ZTE could run as high as $1 billion, RWA General Counsel Carri Bennet said in a call with the Capitol Forum, posted Wednesday. RWA members used equipment in good faith from the Chinese equipment makers because they were able to get it at a lower cost than from other vendors and it has proven to work well, Bennet said. In December, reports surfaced that President Donald Trump would sign an executive order barring on national security grounds U.S. companies from using Huawei and ZTE telecom equipment (see 1902060056). “We've seen speculation” that the ban will be on “Huawei, but we're assuming ZTE as well. … We don't know if that's a going forward ban for 5G technology or if it's going to impact the 3G and 4G technology that's already been deployed,” Bennet said. RWA members are concerned about costs for ripping out and replacing the equipment, she said. “They would need funding,” she said. “We've looked at this from a constitutional standpoint of whether it's a ‘takings’ under the Constitution and whether the government would pay for the replacement for other network gear.”

Qualcomm announced a second-generation 5G New Radio modem, a 7-nanometer single-chip integrated 5G to 2G multimode device. The Snapdragon X55 supports 5G NR mmWave and sub-6 GHz spectrum bands with up to 7 Gbps download speeds and 3 Gbps upload speeds over 5G, along with Category 22 LTE with up to 2.5 Gbps LTE download speeds, it said. The modem is designed for global 5G rollouts with support for all major frequency bands, said the company. Currently sampling to customers, the Snapdragon X55 is expected to be in commercial devices late this year.