Negotiations on the future of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band are on. FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly called in several principals last week for a meeting, said a filing in docket 17-258. The Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, General Electric, NCTA, NTCA, the Rural Wireless Association and the Wireless ISP Association attended. “The parties explained the importance of the 3.5 GHz band to serving a variety of business cases and deployment plans,” said a joint filing. “The parties specifically offered their perspectives on the geographic licensing areas for Priority Access Licenses in the 3.5 GHz band, consistent with their respective filings in this proceeding.”

Members and staff of ACT|The App Association told FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly 5G is critical to the internet economy. ACT “encouraged the Commission to support wireless broadband infrastructure buildout by streamlining regulations for small-cell deployment, which will enable more efficient densification of today’s networks and the deployment of advanced wireless infrastructure,” said a filing in docket 17-79. “Members depend on strong connectivity.” The association is tracking the future of the citizens broadband radio service band: “The 3.5 GHz band is particularly useful for wireless broadband connectivity because it can extend the reach of wireless broadband services.”

Toyota and Lexus plan to start deployment of dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems on vehicles sold in the U.S. starting in 2021, “with the goal of adoption across most of the Toyota and Lexus lineup by the mid-2020s,” Toyota said in an FCC filing. It posted Friday in 13-49, the day after the new 5G Automotive Association presented its vision for a connected future with cellular vehicle-to-everything technology as an alternative to DSRC (see 1804260040). The development “builds on Toyota’s decision to commercialize vehicles equipped with DSRC in Japan starting in 2015,” Toyota said. “As of March 2018, more than 100,000 DSRC-equipped Toyota and Lexus vehicles were on the road in Japan.”

As the market transitions to 5G, “the engineering challenges embedded in the 5G opportunity play directly to Qualcomm's strengths and the focused investment we have made over the last several years,” said CEO Steve Mollenkopf on a Wednesday earnings call. “We are leading the industry to 5G and we are pleased to see the strength of our roadmap helping to enable the upcoming commercial launches of 5G networks and devices, including the 18 network operators and 20 manufacturers that have selected our X50 5G modem for trials and 5G devices.” Qualcomm will go to market on 5G with a standards-essential-patents-only licensing offering at an “effective” royalty rate of 3.25 percent for “multimode” devices compliant with the Release-15 suite of 5G specifications that 3GPP finalized in December, said Mollenkopf. Modeled after the SEP-only licensing program Qualcomm “successfully” launched in China three years ago, using the same approach for licensing 5G “facilitates the effort to conclude agreements and extensions in 2018 and early 2019, providing for a seamless transition for the launch of 5G devices in 2019,” he said. The company will continue offering its “portfolio-wide” licensing package at the higher 5 percent royalty rate, said Qualcomm Technology Licensing President Alex Rogers in Q&A. “We expect on a go-forward basis that there will be a number of licensees who are interested in extensions and renewals who may want to have SEP-only license agreements,” said Rogers. “We expect there will be a number of licensees who want to maintain portfolio-wide agreements worldwide, but there will also be licensees who want to have SEP-only agreements on a worldwide basis. And that is, of course, something that we can accommodate on a case-by-case basis.”

Satellite operators can have a significant role in 5G by augmenting mobile networks with satellite capabilities, GlobalData said Wednesday. It said high latency and lower reliability than fiber and DSL options have kept satellite as a provider of last resort for 3G and LTE networks, covering only rural areas. But high-throughput satellites are being built on open architectures, making them more flexible and easier to integrate into 5G, it said.

The U.S. wireless industry contributes $475 billion yearly to the U.S. economy, said a CTIA report released Thursday written by Accenture. This shows why the U.S. has to be first to 5G, said CTIA President Meredith Baker. “The next generation of wireless will represent an even bigger boost to the economy, and that’s why we need key policy reforms this year to ensure the U.S. wireless industry wins this global race.”

Smart cities aren’t waiting for 5G, said John Wilson, Hitachi director-America business development, on a panel at a wireless conference. “We have several thousand IoT solutions that are to market, that are being sold, that are implemented in 70 cities across the country,” he said. “How much bandwidth do you need for certain applications?” Applications like sensors on the roads that detect potholes will never need 5G, Wilson said. Fifth-generation wireless is for applications that need very high throughput and very low latency “and you don’t need that for everything IoT,” he said. Elizabeth Rojas Levi, Nokia director-public affairs, said if autonomous vehicles take off, all cities will need 5G. “We’re going to need high-, mid- and low-band spectrum for that,” she said. “The same for remote surgery.” For those types of applications, “we’re going to need more small cells, we’re going to need better connectivity,” she said. Some view these new technologies as something out of the The Jetsons, she said. “Not really. This stuff is already happening. It’s just that it hasn’t scaled yet and it hasn’t scaled globally.”

Samsung teamed with Japanese wireless carrier KDDI on “the successful completion of a 5G field trial” in 30,000-seat professional baseball stadium in Okinawa, Japan, said Samsung Monday. The trial used Samsung's 5G “end-to-end solutions” to showcase a live feed of 4K video content downloaded and streamed simultaneously on 5G tablets, it said. Samsung’s 5G access units with beam-forming technology were installed on a light tower located beyond the left field fence “to create 5G coverage in the direction of home plate and first and third bases,” it said. The successful trial results reflect Samsung and KDDI efforts to use 5G technology in the 28 GHz band “to redefine user experiences in crowded environments and spotlight a new approach to viewing sports games,” said Samsung. The migration to 5G “holds the powerful potential to create new user experiences and business models that are more immersive and dynamic than ever before,” it said. Through the KDDI collaboration, Samsung “will stay committed to exploring 5G-driven business models that can be applied in diverse high-demand locations based on a wide range of methods,” it said.