The FCC approved a declaratory ruling and order designed to speed the deployment of small cells and 5G across the U.S. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, whose vote had been in doubt (see 1809200007), partially dissented and partially concurred Wednesday.

Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said many interests are using 5G as an excuse to get things they want, in a Brookings Institution blog post. T-Mobile and Sprint use the race for 5G as evidence their deal should be approved, Wheeler said. The FCC “has used the race to justify extending Washington’s regulatory reach down to telling local governments how to do zoning for antenna siting,” he said. Satellite companies want to recast their licenses for 5G spectrum and seek a “potential monetary windfall” from a private auction, he said. It's time for cooler heads to prevail, said Wheeler, a Brookings visiting fellow. “5G is an important step forward for wireless technology that will benefit consumers and drive economic growth,” he said. “However, it is time to take a deep breath and let logic temper emotional battle cries and political gamesmanship. We need to spend less time worrying about China and more time asking how we can we race to make 5G work for all Americans.”

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel declined to say Thursday whether she will vote for the pending 5G wireless infrastructure order and declaratory ruling at the Wednesday commissioners' meeting, and she expressed strong reservations. Rosenworcel also said at a Politico 5G discussion that U.S. tariffs against China are going be harmful to 5G. Commissioner Brendan Carr, the architect of the 5G order, defended the action the FCC is poised to take next week.

Initial applications to bid in the FCC’s first high-band spectrum auctions were due 6 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The agency eventually will publish a list of short-form applications, both those deemed complete and incomplete. The 28 GHz auction starts Nov. 14 and 24 GHz auction about one month after completion of the 28 GHz auction. Cowen’s Paul Gallant wrote investors earlier Tuesday that one big question is whether Dish Network will jump in. “If Dish submits an application, it could complicate any merger or spectrum sale discussions with wireless carriers” because of anti-collusion rules, he noted: But talks are still possible as long as a company “cordons off its bidding team from its deal team.” Gallant is also watching other non-carriers that file applications. “No pre-auction analysis would be complete without noting the distant possibility of Amazon, Google or some other deep-pocketed, non-traditional bidder jumping in,” he said. Dish has gone big in other auctions, especially the AWS-3 and TV incentive auctions.

With less than two weeks to a vote on a draft declaratory ruling and order designed to speed up infrastructure siting (see 1809050029), cities are mounting a campaign to get the FCC to rethink the order. Commissioner Brendan Carr, who crafted it, said in a speech to the Mobile World Congress Americas that the FCC needs to act to lead on 5G. Others at the Los Angeles Thursday conference also stressed the importance of making small cells easier to site (see 1809130043 and 1809120031). Elsewhere, Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) supported reducing small-cells application fees beyond what's required by this year’s Illinois law.

Keynote speakers at day two of the Mobile World Congress Americas conference in Los Angeles agreed 5G will be transformative, for the wireless industry and beyond. “We need faster, we need reliable, we need responsive,” said Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri. “We need 5G, which is good because it’s here. We were not always sure that it would arrive so fast.” All four national wireless carriers deserve credit, Suri said. “These folks are moving fast and they’re moving first,” he said. “They want to get started to grab the moment. They’re right.”

Verizon isn’t changing strategies despite change at the top, CEO Hans Vestberg said at a Goldman Sachs conference Thursday. He said Verizon is winning the race to 5G, also a centerpiece of a show in Los Angeles (see 1809130043). Vestberg took over as CEO from Lowell McAdam Aug. 1.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said Congress, not states, must tackle privacy and net neutrality laws. State privacy laws are a problem for everyone, including AT&T, Facebook and Google, he told a Goldman Sachs conference Wednesday. “I don’t even know how we operate” under different laws, he said. “It needs to happen at the federal level,” he said. “Congress needs to step up.”

The U.S. will have more than 50 5G cities at this time next year but to get there will require speeding up siting and help from the FCC, CTIA President Meredith Baker said Wednesday at the Mobile World Congress event in Los Angeles. The agency needs to reallocate more spectrum for broadband, she said. Commissioners are set to take up the next big wireless infrastructure order at their Sept. 26 meeting (see 1809050029). It's raising local concerns (see 1809110030).

Apple’s annual September product launch lacked the typical surprise and any word of the AirPower wireless charging pad first mentioned last September to charge an iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods simultaneously (see 1709120062). Wednesday's event streamed from the company's Cupertino, California, headquarters focused heavily on camera features in the three new iPhones and on medical capabilities of the Apple Watch Series 4. The largest Apple phone to date, the iPhone Xs Max, has a 6.5-inch display, leading industry analyst Ross Rubin to tweet: “As if there were any doubt left why Apple killed the iPad mini.” The latest iPhones start at $749 for the iPhone XR, due in October, at $999 for the iPhone Xs and $1,099 for the iPhone Xs Max, slated for Sept. 21 shipping. Good news about the new iPhones is they are 600 MHz compatible and will use the spectrum T-Mobile bought in the TV incentive auction, an executive of the carrier said later that day (see 1809120031).