Omnispace's Spark-2 satellite launch last week completes the deployment step for the Virginia satcom operator's planned 5G-capable satellite network. It said Spark-1, launched a month ago, and Spark-2 will be used to validate development and implementation of the network.

T-Mobile said it kicked off its accelerator program Tuesday, with a focus on augmented-reality smart glasses. “Smart glasses will completely change how we connect and experience the world around us,” said John Saw, executive vice president-advanced and emerging technologies: “With T-Mobile 5G we have the capacity and performance needed to power high-bandwidth, immersive AR experiences for smart glasses, but it’s the developers and entrepreneurs that will bring these new applications to life.” Accelerator participants include: London-based Beem, Tokyo-based Mawari, and U.S. companies Krikey, Mohx-games, Pluto and VictoryXR, said a news release.

Mavenir spoke with an aide to Commissioner Brendan Carr on the FCC’s legal ability to address open radio access network deployment. “The Commission should further consider incumbent … manufacturer dominance on an individual network and geographical basis, consistent with customer purchasing decisions,” said a filing posted Friday in docket 21-63: “When it does so, Mavenir believes the facts will show that the Commission should require interoperability and the development of open interfaces for RAN equipment.” Mavenir included in the filing recent ORAN principles from the U.K.

Efforts to build infrastructure for 5G are starting to hit a “stall speed” due to a lack of support for the FCC from the White House, said Commissioner Brendan Carr Tuesday in an interview on the Ruthless Podcast. Carr said the Biden administration hasn’t supported the FCC in spectrum battles with other federal agencies the way the Trump administration did. Carr also urged Section 230 reform, which he said is opposed by “media gatekeepers.” He said he’s “hopeful” about Elon Musk’s possible purchase of Twitter but said laws also are needed. Carr said he doesn’t know if there was evidence of Twitter suppressing conservatives on social media, but he wouldn’t be surprised if there was “a run on shredder trucks and burn bags” in Silicon Valley. The biggest challenge now facing the FCC is the specter of waste, fraud and abuse of the recent wave of federal infrastructure funds, Carr said. “I’m really worried we’re going to see billions of dollars wasted,” he said.

National Institute of Standards and Technology researchers determined performance is consistent across various millimeter-wave bands that have been targeted for 5G. Researchers used a new method to measure frequency effects across 26.5-40 GHz. “After extensive study in the laboratory and two real-world environments, NIST results confirmed that the main signal path -- over a clear ‘line of sight’ between transmitter and receiver -- does not vary by frequency, a generally accepted thesis for traditional wireless systems but until now not proven for the mmWave spectrum,” said the agency Tuesday. Researchers found signal losses in secondary paths “where transmissions are reflected, bent or diffused into clusters of reflections … can vary somewhat by frequency, depending on the type of path,” NIST said: “Reflective paths, which are the second strongest and critical for maintaining connectivity, lost only a little signal strength at higher frequencies.”

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen and other top executives from the company met with FCC staff to push for action on 5G in the 12 GHz band. “The 12 GHz band represents 500 megahertz of spectrum that is well-suited for terrestrial, two-way 5G use cases, while still protecting satellite operations,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 19-348: “Given that the enormous benefits of allowing 5G terrestrial operations in the 12 GHz band can be realized without interfering with existing operations, the Commission should act expeditiously to unlock the power of 5G-ready spectrum in this band.” The Dish officials also asked the FCC to increase authorized power levels in the citizens broadband radio service band. Dish met with staff from the Wireless and International bureaus and Office of Engineering & Technology. The FCC has faced continuing pressure to act on the 12 GHz band from the 5G for 12 GHz Coalition (see 2203210056). Ergen thinks the 12 GHz band is "the ideal frequency" for fixed wireless, he said on a quarterly earnings call Friday (see 2205070001).

Dish Network appears to be behind schedule, both in its deployment of 5G and on its move to an open radio access network, said John Strand of Strand Consult after Dish said it's live in Las Vegas (see 2205040057). “With regard to the announcement that they made in relation to the Samsung agreement, it seems that they have had to admit that they cannot meet their deadline with OpenRAN,” Strand emailed Thursday. “They bought Samsung’s [virtual RAN] solution with a promise that it will be OpenRAN compliant at some point,” he said: “Virtualization and cloudification are the global trends. The challenge for OpenRAN players is to achieve the mix and match of vendors while ensuring performance. The OpenRAN optimization for substitutability, energy consumption, network performance, and security has yet to be proven whereas classic 3GPP [3rd Generation Partnership Project] network elements deliver that today. Dish’s story of mixing and matching vendors is not yet a reality.” Strand sees broader challenges ahead. The U.S. remains “an exciting 5G market with dynamism across the value chain,” but “there is no new US spectrum on the table and the FCC’s spectrum authority is about to expire, so policymakers need to step up if the US is to sustain its advantage,” he said.

T-Mobile has no plans to raises rate for service despite inflation, CEO Mike Sievert said Thursday. T-Mobile has been locked in a battle with AT&T to sign up smartphone subscribers and AT&T said this week it will raise rates for some older plans (see 2205030066). “Investors, customers, and employees have all been asking: when will T-Mobile raise rates?” Sievert blogged: “Our answer is Price Lock. Even as the price of everything else is going up, the Un-carrier is making a commitment to customers joining T-Mobile that we won’t raise the price of their wireless rate plans.”

T-Mobile acted Wednesday to broaden the appeal of its 5G fixed-wireless Home Internet product. The service will now be available for as low as $30/month for families subscribed to Magenta Max. T-Mobile will allow customers to test the service for 15 days for free and is offering to pay up to $500 to cover the cost of early termination fees when switching from another fixed provider. T-Mobile also said Home Internet will be available for all business customers in its wireless footprint. T-Mobile is also offering inducements to switch, including 50% off YouTube TV for a year. CEO Mike Sievert said “with Internet Freedom, we’re taking on Big Internet and bringing the Un-carrier movement to broadband." "The most significant announcements were about new pricing and bundling strategies for fixed wireless broadband,” New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors: “The initiative will drive faster broadband growth, but with lower ARPU [average revenue per user] . Unclear whether that will be viewed as positive or negative for T-Mobile. It will be viewed as negative for Cable.” T-Mobile said last week it added 338,000 high-speed internet customers in Q1, bringing its total to just under 1 million (see 2204270061).

The world is adding 5G cities at a pace of almost two per day, with the current number at 1,947 globally, reported Viavi Solutions Tuesday. At the end of January, 72 nations had 5G networks in place, with the newest crop of Argentina, Bhutan, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Malta and Mauritius, the report says. The U.S., at 296, and China, at 356, had the most 5G cities. “There are currently 24 Standalone (SA) 5G networks globally, meaning that they have been built using a new 5G core network,” Viavi said: “It is widely considered that many of the next-generation use cases and monetization models associated with 5G, beyond enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) will only be possible when Standalone 5G networks built on new 5G core networks are in place.” Some 64 operators have publicly announced open radio access networks. “This breaks down to 23 live deployments, …34 in the trial phase with a further seven operators that have publicly announced they are in the pre-trial phase.”