AT&T has opened 10 5G edge zones across the U.S., with plans to get to “an even dozen by the end of 2022,” with “many more” to follow “in 2023 and beyond,” Chief Technology Officer Jeremy Legg said Tuesday. All the zones have a local stand-alone network core, local public cloud or private data center computing resources and software-defined network capabilities and virtualized network functions, he said. “These edge zones powered by regional 5G standalone network cores will open a range of new capabilities that simply aren’t possible with 4G,” Legg said: “Much like startups that played an integral role in developing new experiences and services because of 4G, we believe that giving them localized, hands-on access to our 5G network will be a foundational building block for tomorrow’s inventors.”

Ericsson says moving to renewable energy is critical to helping providers curb their carbon footprint as they deploy 5G. “Where energy consumption is responsible for 20-40% of operational expenditure (opex) for communications service providers, Ericsson’s research shows that if the entire [information and communications technology] industry switched to renewable energy sources for all of its electricity requirements, the carbon footprint could be reduced by 80%," said a Monday report. “With the growing demand for mobile networks to handle more data than ever, there is a unique opportunity to combat emissions,” Ericsson said. The report recommends providers make their networks smarter as they deploy bands coming online for 5G, including by leveraging AI and machine learning “and automation to boost energy savings.”

T-Mobile had the fastest mobile speeds among major U.S. carriers, with a median download speed of 116.14 Mbps on modern chipsets, Ookla reported Monday. “Verizon Wireless and AT&T were distant runners up,” at 58.64 and 57.94 Mbps, the report said. T-Mobile also had the highest upload speeds, at 10.91 Mbps, versus 8.30 for Verizon and 7.55 for AT&T. “Looking only at tests taken on a 5G connection, T-Mobile had the fastest median 5G download speed in the U.S. at 193.06 Mbps during Q3 2022, a slight increase over Q2 2022,” Ookla said. “Verizon Wireless remained second, and saw a slight increase to 119.80 Mbps in Q3 2022. AT&T remained third at 81.22 Mbps -- a slight increase from Q2 2022.”

Ericsson projects 510 million mobile subscribers worldwide will upgrade to 5G next year. “Despite spiraling inflation, elevated food and energy costs, and rising interest rates during 2022, consumers globally are still planning to upgrade to 5G,” said the report last week. Consumers report they would cut spending on pay TV, video on demand, music and sports streaming subscriptions before mobile wireless, the report said: “Despite global economic uncertainty, 5G users value reliable connectivity and the majority of existing 5G users are unwilling to return to 4G.” Ericsson said it interviewed online 49,100 consumers in 37 markets.

5G's better connectivity carries potential risks to data protection and cybersecurity, and the regulatory landscape is murky, Hogan Lovells attorneys said Wednesday on a virtual law firm panel. To achieve increased connectivity, international data transfers must be more seamless and frequent than now, but legal frameworks currently restrict data flows, said Eduardo Ustaran. As 5G enables more data transfers, assessing the risks it poses becomes more important, he said. The U.K. Information Commissioner's Office requires organizations to undertake data risk assessments, but 5G changes the situation by introducing a new element of technology and possibly new equipment vendors. The picture is changing rapidly in the Asia-Pacific region, where there's a patchwork of fast-changing laws in each jurisdiction, with more restrictions on data transfers, said Mark Parsons. AI facilitated by 5G will have a growing significance in people's lives and will also accelerate the body of law around it, Ustaran said. Current laws commonly mandate increased accountability and governance for organizations involved in developing AI, he said. 5G was designed during an era more safety-focused than earlier mobile iterations, and some of its improvements do away with entire catalogs of cybersecurity threats, said Nathan Salminen: But every software has vulnerabilities, and "the danger here is unknown." The technology enables a huge amount of metadata that could threaten cybersecurity, said Ana Rumualdo; network and device security, encryption and government regulation will be important, as will limits on who can access all that real-time data. Asked about the current and future regulatory scene, speakers urged businesses to expect change. The U.K. wants to show its departure from the EU can deliver some benefits and the current government wants to support innovation and technological development, so will likely try a lighter regulatory approach, said Ustaran. Expect a more risk-based approach to regulation for technology and 5G, but also much uncertainty about what companies must do to comply, he said. The EU is focused on accountability and data governance; it worries about how much real-time data from individuals will be made available and how people can effectively enforce their rights, said Joke Bodewits. The U.S. has begun regulating critical infrastructure and software more closely, and many pieces of 5G will fall under those measures, said Salminen: Expect to see more 5G-specific legislation in coming years. There's a "glimmer" of convergence for privacy and data protection rules in Asia, but not as much of a focus on cybersecurity, said Parsons. Some countries, such as China and Vietnam, now have many regulations on 5G uses, and that trend will continue, raising questions about potential Balkanization across the region, he added.

GSMA warned that European deployment of 5G is proceeding more slowly than in the U.S., Japan and South Korea. At the end of June, operators in 34 European markets had launched commercial 5G services, with consumer take-up growing to 6% of the mobile customer base, said the Wednesday report: “Norway leads in adoption of the technology, with 16% now using 5G, but positive momentum is also evident in Switzerland (14%), Finland (13%), the U.K. (11%) and Germany (10%).” GSMA forecasts the adoption rate across Europe will hit 44% by 2025, led by the U.K. and Germany. “That rapid growth is outpaced by other world economies, with South Korea expected to hit 73% in the same time period” and “Japan and the US are likely to achieve 68% adoption,” the report said.

Dish Network told the FCC it’s continuing to build out its 5G network since certifying in June that it’s now offering 5G broadband service to more than 20% of U.S. POPs (see 2206150044). “Since meeting its 2022 milestone, DISH has continued to build out its cloud-native, standalone 5G wireless network and looks forward to bringing additional competition to American consumers and enhancing U.S. technology leadership through its deployment,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 22-212. Parts of the update, including Dish 5G sites, were redacted. Dish said it’s utilizing its AWS-4, AWS H block and 700 MHz E block licenses and “radios deployed on all of the DISH 5G Sites were transmitting using all of these bands.” Dish is offering 5G voice over new radio (VoNR) on the Motorola Edge+ in the Las Vegas market, it said. “DISH was the first provider to launch VoNR in the U.S. in May 2022, and we plan to expand VoNR functionality and the sale of VoNR devices to additional markets in the coming months as we optimize the VoNR experience,” the filing said.

Netgear added a $799 5G mobile hotspot to its lineup, it said Tuesday. The Netgear Nighthawk M6 mobile hotspot router raises the maximum 5G speed that can be supported and adds 160 MHz capability to connect with Wi-Fi 6 client devices, the company said. With dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz AX3600 Wi-Fi 6, the M6 can handle mobile connectivity needs from fast file transfer to high-end video streaming on up to 32 connected devices, Netgear said. Its 5040 mAh battery is said to last up to 13 hours on a single charge. When users want to conserve 5G data usage or in areas where only public Wi-Fi but no cellular signal is available, the M6's offloading feature enables tethering to local public Wi-Fi for internet connectivity while eliminating the need to manually connect each device to the local public Wi-Fi, it said. The unlocked device accepts nano SIM cards and works best on AT&T and T-Mobile networks, Netgear said.

T-Mobile asked the FCC for special temporary authority to immediately start using under special temporary authority many of the licenses it won in the 2.5 GHz auction. The spectrum T-Mobile won in the auction is “interspersed with 2.5 GHz spectrum T-Mobile has already deployed for 5G mobile broadband,” the carrier said in a filing posted Monday. “The intermixture of newly won and operational spectrum provides the Commission with a unique opportunity to significantly increase 5G mobile broadband capacity for consumers by allowing T-Mobile to simply expand the channel bandwidths that its previously deployed 5G equipment already supports,” T-Mobile said: “In the unlikely event that the licenses … are not awarded to T-Mobile, operations on the spectrum can cease.” In all the markets identified in its filing, the carrier said it has “already deployed advanced 5G mobile broadband services in the 2.5 GHz band, and … can launch operations without delay and without deploying new infrastructure.” T-Mobile dominated the auction (see 2209010052), winning 7,156 licenses for $304.3 million. Final payments for licenses were due Friday.

GSMA announced Thursday the formation of the GSMA Post-Quantum Telco Network Taskforce, with IBM and Vodafone signing on as the initial members. “Unlike today’s computers that rely on bits for calculation, quantum computers harness the exponential power of quantum bits,” GSMA said: “This can be a complicated, simultaneous mix of 1s and 0s, creating the potential to solve extremely complex problems that challenge even the most powerful supercomputers today.” The task force will “help define requirements, identify dependencies and create the roadmap to implement quantum-safe networking, mitigating the risks associated with future, more-powerful quantum computers,” GSMA said.