ARRL asked to withdraw a December FCC petition for a rulemaking on changes to section 97.15 of its rules. ARRL had sought a change to permit licensed amateur radio operators to build and maintain at their residences an outdoor antenna “for the purpose of conducting Amateur Radio communications, notwithstanding the provisions of any private land use regulations that may be imposed on the residential real property.” Now, the group seeks to “withdraw without prejudice.”

The Coalition of E-Reader Manufacturers asked for an extra 30 days to prepare a study on technological development, marketing and consumer use trends in the basic e-reader market. The FCC will use the information to determine whether to leave in place an exclusion from advanced communications services (ACS) accessibility rules, the coalition said. The report was due Friday, required by a 2016 order from Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, which provided a three-year extension. Additional time would “ensure development of a complete record and thereby serve the public interest,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 10-213. The 2013 petition seeking a waiver said members were Amazon, Kobo and Sony.

Consumer cell-signal boosters shouldn’t be permitted to operate in the 2.3 GHz wireless communications service band, AT&T told the FCC. In separate filings, the Aerospace and Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council and Sirius XM “outlined the technical challenges posed to their operations by the presence of WCS transmitters,” AT&T said in docket 10-4. “AT&T has significant experience navigating this interference environment and shares AFTRCC’s and Sirius XM’s concerns.”

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri has “absolutely no doubt" a "fast and meaningful shift to 5G is underway,” he said Thursday on a Q4 call. All signs say 2019 will be "very second-half-loaded” in the 5G transition because of the “staggered nature" of global 5G rollouts from region to region, he said. He expects “a broader ramp-up starting at the tail end of 2019 and in 2020,” he said. The 5G “ecosystem” is “in its early days,” so “development and testing are operating under considerable time pressure,” he said. Though there’s a “massive amount of 5G-ready hardware already deployed,” some of it “is waiting for the availability and acceptance of the key 5G software releases,” he said. “Those releases will come available as the year progresses.”

The National Diversity Coalition and T-Mobile agreed the carrier will boost diversity if its Sprint takeover is approved. “The two entities discussed ways to collaborate, along with other community groups, on a number of initiatives focused on serving low-income communities and expanding the company’s planned diversity initiatives,” NDC said Thursday. A T-Mobile council of non-employees from “African American, Asian, Latino, Native American and LGBTQ communities, as well as persons with disabilities and women,” will advise on a plan. The announcement Friday said T-Mobile “affirmed a commitment to diversity among its board and workforce recruitment” and to increase diverse spending in California to at minimum meet the Public Utilities Commission’s goal of 21.5 percent spending with diverse businesses. T-Mobile said Friday it will release Q4 results Thursday. An analyst call with CEO John Legere and other executives starts at 8:30 a.m. EST. T-Mobile is the last of the four major national wireless carriers to report.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr will keynote the National Association of Tower Erectors Unite 2019 conference in Grapevine, Texas, Monday and attend a telehealth event with Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, in Lewisville, said Carr’s office. The NATE address will focus on U.S. leadership in 5G and “preparing our workforce for 5G jobs,” it said. Carr will visit the FCC’s Dallas field office, a tower training school and a wireless manufacturing plant.

FCC officials will meet House Commerce Committee staff Friday to discuss the agency's investigation of wireless carrier location tracking practices, a committee spokesperson emailed Thursday. "We've been doing oversight on this issue on a bipartisan basis." Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., Jan. 11 requested an emergency briefing from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on the issue. The agency declined, citing the partial government shutdown. An agency spokesperson on Thursday confirmed Friday's meeting, but declined to say whether Pai or commissioners will attend.

Sprint, which argued for its takeover by T-Mobile based on concerns it will falter on its own, reported higher than expected revenue Thursday, but analysts said other numbers raised questions for the company. “We delivered solid financials, increased network investments as we prepare for our mobile 5G launch, and continued the digital transformation of the company,” said Sprint CEO Michel Combes. Sprint is poised to deploy regardless of whether the deal is approved, Combes said, but called the combination “the only path to delivering the breadth and depth of spectrum which will allow us to provide a truly consistent nationwide 5G experience to Americans.” Sprint upgraded thousands of macro sites to add LTE on 800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz, Combes said on a call with analysts. Sprint has installed 2.5 GHz on “roughly” 75 percent of macro sites, up from about 50 percent a year ago, he said. It “added 800 MHz to thousands of sites, primarily in the southwest market,” he said. It has 27,000 small cells on air, compared with 3,000 a year ago, he said. Sprint reported a net loss of $141 million on revenue of $8.4 billion. It had 309,000 net wireless adds but lost 26,000 postpaid and 40,000 prepaid phone customers. “Sprint’s strategy of balancing growth and profitability while we work toward regulatory approval of our T-Mobile merger is reflected” in the results, Combes said. Postpaid and prepaid subscriber losses were “a result of the company moving away from more aggressive pricing promotions, such as the company’s previous Cut Your Bill in Half promotion,” said Technology Business Research: The move to more conservative pricing “helps Sprint to improve” average revenue per unit but is “diminishing subscriber growth as Sprint’s reputation as the pricing leader in the U.S. wireless industry is its strongest differentiator against rivals.” While results "showed continued signs of stabilization for the business, we think Sprint will need more time before their standalone business can support the current valuation of the stock,” said New Street analyst Jonathan Chaplin. “To be constructive on the stand-alone business, we would need to see the benefits of their network investment driving better subscriber trends.” Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson continues to predict T-Mobile/Sprint has a 50/50 shot at approval. “DOJ Antitrust [Division] chief Makan Delrahim was presumed to be the ultimate decision-maker for the Sprint/T-Mobile deal,” Moffett wrote investors. “But he and Attorney General nominee William Barr are seen, at best, to be adversaries, and, at worst, open enemies. Barr’s advocacy for AT&T/Time Warner put him at odds with Delrahim. Will Delrahim stay if Barr is confirmed?”

T-Mobile and Sprint said that combined, they would build five U.S. high-tech customer experience centers, starting with Overland Park, Kansas, where Sprint is headquartered. Each center would create an average of 1,000 jobs. The companies would add jobs at T-Mobile’s two existing centers, for a total of 7,500 in 2024. “The new Customer Experience Centers are one part of the New T-Mobile’s commitment to invest billions of dollars in creating new jobs and supporting infrastructure to bring world-class wireless,” they said Wednesday.

As the wireless industry begins transitioning to 5G, it's “doing so with a robust and coordinated ecosystem of carriers, handset OEMs, component suppliers and government support,” said IHS Markit. “A ‘perfect storm’ of 5G capabilities and interested parties are coming together to shape the impending technology transition,” said the report emailed Wednesday, concluding that 5G smartphones are “primed and ready” for a “fast rollout.” Citing Qualcomm’s CES forecast that 30 models are scheduled to debut globally in 2019, IHS said: “With the industry aligned and momentum clearly behind 5G smartphone introductions in 2019, the lead-up to the 5G transition is shaping up to be much more coherent than it was for the LTE transition.” In 2020, the second year of 5G smartphone commercial introductions, IHS forecasts that handset adoption will reach six times the volume of LTE smartphones during the time frame.