A Wi-Fi group backing more unlicensed spectrum thinks the FCC "can achieve a win-win solution for auto safety, Wi-Fi, and the wireless economy" and agrees Friday with the previous day's letter (see 1805100062) from Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel to Toyota Motor North America CEO James Lentz. The FCC members wrote on the automaker's plans to begin deploying dedicated short-range communications systems (DSRC) in some 2021 models. It's "the perfect time for the Commission to take a fresh look at the rules for the 5.9 GHz band," said WifiForward, with partners including Arris, Best Buy, Comcast, CTA, Google, Microsoft, Public Knowledge and R Street. "Adjacent bands are now home to billions of innovative unlicensed devices, and a variety of vehicle safety technologies have overtaken DSRC." Toyota believes DSRC can help save lives and is "confident the FCC shares this goal and will preserve the spectrum that has been allocated for this," a company spokesman said Friday. "Toyota is now encouraging all automakers and transportation infrastructure owner/operators to quickly commit to DSRC technologies in the U.S. to realize the full safety and traffic flow benefits." The representative noted that as of March, the company had more than 100,000 such equipped Toyota and Lexus vehicles on Japanese roads.
NXP, which makes dedicated short-range communications chips for the 2017 Cadillac CTS, told the FCC it should protect the technology in the 5.9 GHz band. “DSRC is uniquely configured to enable continuous, low latency, and secure data exchanges between vehicles and the roadway infrastructure to support safety-critical applications,” NXP said in docket 13-49. "Connected Vehicle technologies based on DSRC have the potential to provide benefits including increasing mobility, reducing crashes, and most importantly saving lives."
Charter Communications is testing of use of the 3.5 GHz spectrum in fixed wireless applications in some markets and mobility applications in others, like Tampa, it blogged Friday. It said the testing will help prepare for its mobile wireless service launch, expected in the middle of this year (see 1804270033). It said it has 200 citizens broadband radio service small cellsites deployed in Tampa in a variety of settings, and it's considering how the CBRS band could be part of its wireless operations. Charter said it plans ubiquitous wireless connectivity through a mix of Wi-Fi 4G, LTE and 5G
States, localities, utilities and big companies signed an Aviat Networks letter warning the FCC not to allow unlicensed users on 6 GHz spectrum. The list included Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Northrop Grumman, Chevron, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. In a letter posted Wednesday in docket 17-183, CEO Michael Pangia disagreed with a January study by RKF Engineering Solutions for Apple, Facebook, Google and other tech companies. The study said the band can be shared with no downside (see 1804130061). "The 6GHz band is the work horse of the fixed link world in the United States," Pangia wrote. "No other band can support such long links at such high availability." It provides critical communications for public safety and national infrastructure, the CEO said. Unlicensed or unregistered radio LANs can't coexist with licensed fixed links and "it would be virtually impossible for the FCC to locate any sources of interference" to protect the licensed links, he said. Aviat included endorsing quotes from EcliptixNet Broadband, Marcus Communications, Occidental Petroleum and Tusa Consulting.
AT&T is pleased with the reception it has gotten on FirstNet, with about 600 public safety agencies in 48 states signing on, Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said Wednesday on a Q1 earnings call. AT&T has spent money and time over the better part of a year “getting to know our potential clients, getting into the industry, making a bigger effort to be a known player,” Stephens said. FirstNet customers can already get “relentless or ruthless pre-emption” and “priority services,” he said. The carrier is installing FirstNet’s 700 MHz Band 14 spectrum on its towers, Stephens said. “Over the next five years, we'll be putting Band 14 on tens of thousands of new and existing sites nationwide,” he said. “We plan to touch about a third of our cellsites this year.” AT&T’s new agreement with Crown Castle “will help us speed this process,” he said. “The agreement simplifies and expands our long-term leasing deal for wireless network infrastructure.” On buying Time Warner, Stephens said: “Both sides are wrapping up their cases and are now preparing for closing arguments on April 30. We'll wait for the court's ruling. Based on the court's determination, we stand ready to close. Funding is in place, even after we settle the special mandatory redemption bonds.” Stephens said 5G networks will be up by the end of the year, though handsets won’t be readily available until 2019. The technology works for fixed wireless, though AT&T doesn’t see much of a market, he said. “We're not as excited about the business case. It's not as compelling yet for us as it may be for some.” Tests of 5G in high-band spectrum are encouraging, he said. AT&T is seeing speeds of 1 Gbps and higher “under line-of-sight conditions to distances up to 900 feet and with extremely low latency rates,” Stevens said: The spectrum “is able to penetrate foliage, glass and even walls better than anticipated with no discernible signal performance impacts due to rain, snow or other weather issues.” Operating revenue fell about 3 percent to $38.04 billion from the year-ago quarter, falling slightly below expectations. Profit rose by about a third to $4.76 billion. AT&T said it added 187,000 linear video subscribers and 312,000 subscribers to its streaming service DirecTV Now. The telco added 49,000 postpaid wireless customers in the U.S. The stock closed down 6 percent Thursday at $33.10.
The Competitive Carriers Association and CTIA jointly proposed a compromise on the size of priority access licenses in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. They "reached an agreement that the Commission should license PALs using Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the top 306 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs) and use county-based geographic area licenses in the remaining 428 CMAs,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-258. “This compromise proposal paves the way for swift action while balancing the needs of the wide range of stakeholders that are expected to participate in the 3.5 GHz auction,” the groups said. “It promotes investment in the band and provides an opportunity for parties to acquire PAL spectrum in areas that best fit their business models and investment plans.” Wireless ISP Association President Claude Aiken objected, saying the CBRS proposal would “effectively put up a ‘large bidders only’ sign at the door and turn away innovators and small operators serving rural Americans.” The FCC should beef up competition for 3.5 GHz spectrum in the largest metropolitan statistical areas by reducing license areas in the top 10 percent of MSA markets to counties, Charter Communications said in a docket 17-258 filing Monday about the wireless proposal. It said it's investing in 3.5 GHz trials itself in markets in California, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Michigan and North Carolina.
Verizon’s push to 5G is “progressing as planned,” said Verizon Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis on a financial call Tuesday as the carrier unveiled Q1 results. “We are quickly approaching the initial launch of our residential broadband service later this year, which will be the first use case of a broader 5G strategy,” Ellis said. “We are driving the ecosystem for future growth across the entire array of 5G services.” Verizon “successfully completed” its 11-city 5G pre-commercial trials and is moving to the commercial deployment phase “for the residential broadband launch in the second half of this year,” he said. “Earlier this month, we performed successful end-to-end 5G data sessions in these locations using commercial equipment that will be deployed [in] the launch later this year.” The carrier has said Sacramento will be one of the three to five cities where it will launch 5G later this year, and it will name other cities as launch gets closer, he said. Ellis said 5G service launch initially will use the carrier’s V5GTF standard, rather than the industry’s 5G standard released by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project late last year. “This gives us the opportunity to get a product out in the market before others,” he said. Ellis declined to say whether Verizon is likely to participate in upcoming FCC auctions of high-band spectrum. “We are very comfortable with the spectrum assets that we own as we move into the 5G world,” he said. “But at the right price, spectrum is interesting.” Operating revenue rose 6.6 percent from the year-ago quarter to $31.77 billion as profit rose 31 percent to $4.67 billion. The carrier had a net increase of 260,000 retail postpaid connections. "We began 2018 with strong momentum, and we expect it to continue throughout the year,” said CEO Lowell McAdam. “We are positioning Verizon for long-term growth while executing our strategy today and leading the way for the next cycle of growth for the industry.”
NTIA said the FCC should require protection of the Table Mountain field site and radio quiet zone, north of Boulder, Colorado, from interference from devices using the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Since the band will use spectrum access system administrators, the FCC should require the administrators to protect the 1,800-acre site, NTIA's Thursday letter said in docket 15-319.
AT&T said it’s launching 5G Evolution technology in parts of 117 new markets, bringing markets served to 141. The technology can deliver theoretical peak speeds of up to 400 Mbps, said a news release. The company is also making LTE-license assisted access available in parts of three new markets, bringing markets served with that technology to seven. LTE-LAA can deliver theoretical peak speeds of up to 1 Gbps, and is "helping to drive our path to eventual nationwide mobile 5G,” the carrier said.
CTIA filed reports on importance of the move to 5G and the threat from China (see 1804160056). “China’s narrow lead in 5G-readiness is due to a combination of both proactive government policies and industry momentum, underscoring the urgency in action by U.S. policymakers,” said a filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 14-177.