Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on those sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
T-Mobile US turns up 5G at 600 MHz
T-Mobile US has revved up 5G New Radio on its 600 MHz spectrum and will officially begin offering customers access on Friday, with two 5G devices available for pre-sale this week and coverage that spreads deep into suburban and rural areas of America. T-Mobile US says that it has more than 1 million square miles of 5G NR coverage, extending to more than 200 million potential customers in more than 5,000 cities and towns. It is also making its 5G service available to its Metro by T-Mobile prepaid customers, if they purchase a 5G-capable device. The carrier is kicking off its 5G service with a heavy focus on its use of its 600 MHz holdings for the network, contrasting that with the limited coverage from AT&T and Verizon’s millimeter-wave-based offerings. It has made available an interactive coverage map that overlays its dark magenta 4G coverage with a lighter-shaded layer of 5G that extends from the carrier’s home state of Washington across the country, with significant areas of coverage across the nation’s midsection. Oklahoma, Minnesota, New Mexico and Mississippi appear to have particularly robust state-level coverage. Mark McDiarmid, SVP of radio network engineering and development at T-Mobile US, told RCR Wireless New that the 600 MHz coverage launching this week is the “foundational layer of the 5G service that we’re building” — and just one part of the extensive 5G plans of the New T-Mobile, once it has officially merged with Sprint. … Read more
FirstNet hits 1 million connections
AT&T-FirstNet is now serving more than a million connections, with more than 10,000 public safety agencies and organization subscribed to the service, AT&T reported. The carrier said that its build out of Band 14 700 MHz spectrum is more than 75% complete at this point and that it is “well ahead of schedule,” with Band 14 access available in more than 675 markets across the United States. When all of AT&T’s spectrum bands — to which FirstNet subscribers have access — are considered, the carrier says that its prioritized service for first responders covers 99% of the U.S. population. AT&T said that it plans to launch its mission-critical push-to-talk service, FirstNet Push-to-Talk, in early 2020 — which appears to reflect another delay in the voice-centric, standards-based feature. In mid-2018, AT&T-FirstNet had indicated that it expected to roll out the capability in early 2019, after putting out an RFP with an eye toward selecting multiple vendors while also ensuring interoperability. … Read more
Huawei sues over FCC ban
Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies has decided to challenge a recent decision by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that further restricted the company’s current business in the U.S. by banning local rural carriers to use a government fund to purchase equipment from the Chinese company, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. According to the report, Huawei is currently preparing a lawsuit that would challenge the decision. The company is expected to file a suit challenging the FCC decision this week in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The vendor has also increased its spending in lobbying firms in Washington, according to the report. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month, Huawei’s founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei said his company “can survive very well without the U.S.” On November 25, the FCC has unanimously moved to block the use of Universal Service Fund financial resources to acquire telecommunications gear and services from companies that “pose a national security threat,” and designated Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE as such companies. … Read more
5G deploying faster than expected: Qualcomm
Operators in regions such as Europe, Asia and the United States have started the 5G race with commercial launches this year. RCR Wireless News interviewed Ignacio Contreras, director of marketing for 5G of Qualcomm, to learn more about the company’s vision on the current status of 5G and the future of this technology. Q: Global operators have been deploying 5G networks faster than what the industry initially expected. What is Qualcomm’s vision in this regard? A: What we see is that 5G technology is being deployed very quickly both at network levels and in terms of device availability. Supposedly, 5G technology was not going to be commercially launched this year. A couple of years ago, the industry expected the first commercial deployments in the 5G segment to take place in 2020. Today we have more than 30 5G networks in China, Europe, the United States, Korea and Australia and the leading Android device manufacturers have already launched devices for this technology. It is interesting to note that the first year in which 4G was launched there were only three or four networks that were launched commercially in the United States and Europe and few devices available supporting the technology. China did not enter the era of 4G massively until three or four years after the technology was launched. What we are seeing now with 5G is very different, with China, Europe and the United States launching simultaneously. These operators are not competing to see who launches first but they want to offer 5G due to the ability of this technology to meet the growing demand for data from users. … Read More
5G tested for live sports broadcasting
During last Sunday’s Houston Texans vs. New England Patriots football game at NRG Stadium in Houston, 5G was in use on the field to help capture play action from the sidelines. Verizon and Sony showcased 5G’s ability to handle large amounts of data in a time-sensitive environment, with a 5G-enabled Sony PXW-Z450 shoulder camera, a prototype Sony transmitter from Sony and a Sony Xperia 5G millimeter wave device that provided access to Verizon’s 5G network. A camera person from NBC Sports recorded the game using that set-up. David Mazza, CTO, NBC Sports Group, said in a statement that “the picture quality is excellent, and we look forward to the day when we can deploy a wireless camera this easily as part of the 5G rollouts around the country.” “The test proved that 5G-connected cameras can be a reliable and beneficial option for future live sports broadcasts,” Verizon concluded, adding that the combination of its network and Sony’s devices and … Read more
FCC announces 5G fund for rural America
In the latest show of support for rural America, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced the launch of a $9 billion fund to accelerate the deployment of advanced 5G wireless in rural locations across the U.S. The new 5G Fund for rural America will replace the previously planned Mobility Fund Phase II, which would have provided federal support for 4G LTE service in unserved areas but became bogged down in fights over the accuracy of national providers’ coverage maps. In order to receive funds from the Mobility Fund Phase II, wireless providers were required to submit 4G LTE coverage data that helped to determine unserved locations, and which areas were eligible for subsidies from MFII. However, a recently released report showed that the 4G LTE coverage data submitted by providers is not sufficiently reliable for the purpose of moving forward with Mobility Fund Phase II. During the challenge process for MFII, many rural providers protested that coverage maps submitted by the four national carriers overstated each provider’s actual coverage and did not reflect on-the-ground experience in many instances. An FCC staff report on the accuracy of the submitted coverage data — and the challenges — was released along with the plans for the new 5G fund. “Accurate broadband data is essential to bridging the digital divide, and bridging the digital divide is the Commission’s top priority,” the report said, going on to add that … Read more
Sprint’s LTE/5G strategy
HAWAII–Although a planned merger with T-Mobile US is in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, Sprint continues to execute on its 5G strategy with comparatively extensive coverage available in nine markets, including Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Washington D.C. “A year ago, we were talking about what we aspired to deliver in 2019, which was basically our 5G commercial network,” Ryan Sullivan, Sprint’s vice president of product engineering, told RCR Wireless News this week at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Maui. “I think we ended the year in a really good spot.” Sprint’s 5G strategy is also an LTE strategy. The carrier is putting its extensive 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings into service and using that capacity for both LTE and NR by splitting 64T, 64R massive MIMO radios between the two generations of cellular. Sullivan referred to this dual-connect approach as the “secret sauce.” With four 5G devices in-market, including a mobile hotspot (more on that later), Sullivan said he’s “really pleased with the results” and noted that users are getting a “differentiated experience from our competitors” in that 2.5 GHz provides a nice balance of throughput and wide-area coverage as opposed to the roughly 2 Gbps but limited availability of the millimeter wave-based networks Verizon and AT&T are operating. “We set out to deliver in the nine markets,” Sullivan said. “I think by the time we finished our launch by mid-summer, we were at about 11 million people covered. Now we’re at 16 million covered.” … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.