Howard Buskirk

AT&T is accelerating its move to an open radio access network, agreeing to spend up to $14 billion on a five-year contract with Ericsson. The carrier expects limited cost savings as it adopts ORAN, AT&T CEO John Stankey said during a UBS conference Tuesday. In addition, AT&T announced it will work with other vendors, though the move was widely seen as a loss for Ericsson rival Nokia.

The citizens broadband radio service is in its early days, but in 20 years or so it will be as mature as Wi-Fi is today, with a similar ecosystem, Jim Jacobellis, senior vice president at private network company Alef, said Monday during a Dense Networks webinar. “You’re going to see CBRS networks in most any city or county that has some level of communications capability,” he said. That will happen in the next five-10 years. "It’s just a matter of when and how they get there," Jacobellis said. The question is where both Wi-Fi and cellular are “not good enough,” he said: “That’s where private LTE and private cellular can come in and save the day thanks to the recent availability of the CBRS band.” In the U.S., CBRS is “the innovation band,” said Jamaal Smith, vice president-sales at managed-service provider Kajeet. “It allows municipalities, universities, to do things that they might not have been able to do with traditional cellular or with Wi-Fi,” he said. Added Eric Toenjes, national market manager-wireless solution at Graybar, CBRS is “in the early stages of adoption,” though some players “are going all in.” Graybar is a distributor of communications and other solutions. Some users are working with companies like Kajeet while others are developing networks on their own, he said.

The U.S. delegation to the World Radiocommunication Conference in Dubai has been quiet two weeks into the long-awaited conference. Steve Lang, the State Department official who replaced now-Commissioner Anna Gomez as delegation head, will not hold a news conference until after the WRC concludes Dec. 15, a spokesperson confirmed.

U.S. technology is “more important than ever” to national security, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Saturday at the Reagan Defense Forum in California. Raimondo was the first Commerce secretary to address the conference, but said she won’t be the last. The U.S. is serious about blocking China and its military from buying computer chips with advanced AI capabilities, she added.

Most commenters supported adding the equipment and services needed to use Wi-Fi on school buses to the FY 2024 eligible services list for the FCC E-rate program as a category one service. Comments were posted Friday in docket 13-184. FCC Republican Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented last month on an NPRM asking about the change (see 2311090028).

The FCC received only three comments as of Friday in response to its August notice asking about spectrum access in tribal and native Hawaiian areas. Comments were due Thursday in docket 23-265 (see 2308040039). During a recent webinar, FCC officials expressed hope for comments that would help in other proceedings (see 2311160057). The United South and Eastern Tribes Sovereignty Protection Fund (USET) urged the FCC to create a tribal window, similar to that before the 2.5 GHz auction (see 2009030012), for other bands. “Since the late 1990s, the federal government has attempted to subsidize telecommunications deployment in Indian Country, but these efforts have not kept pace with ever-changing and advancing technologies, especially in the areas of spectrum management and use,” USET said. USET cited the $22.4 billion 3.45 GHz auction as an example of the challenges tribes face: “The extremely high price point for obtaining spectrum licenses creates an insurmountable barrier to entry for Tribal Nations, especially since federal funds or credit offsets are non-existent or do not adequately provide the financial support required to participate in these auctions.” The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe said tribes need spectrum in areas where local providers have failed to offer service. “This failure is largely due to the lack of a rate of investment as tribal lands generally are less populated and have large numbers of low-income households steering local internet service providers away from tribal communities,” the tribe said. Make the renewal process easier for tribes through “an automatic renewal process for received/granted FCC licenses,” the Makah Indian Tribe said. “Tribes have historically faced a high employee turnover rate that has caused issues in license renewals in which the granted FCC license has lapsed due to the current process guidelines,” the tribe said.

5G mobile subscriptions are expected to reach 1.6 billion by the end of 2023 and exceed 5.3 billion in 2029, Ericsson said Thursday as it released its much-watched mobility report. In Q3, providers added 163 million 5G subscriptions worldwide. The North American region is expected to have the highest 5G penetration rate by year's end at 61%, more than double that in Europe. About 85% of the world’s population is expected to have access to 5G by the end of 2029, the report found. Ericsson also projected cellular IoT connections will reach 3 billion in 2023. In addition, data use is soaring. Mobile network data increased 33% in a year through Q3 and the average smartphone is expected to use 56 GB of data per month at the end of 2029, Ericsson said. “The ongoing surge in data traffic remains a strong driver of demand for mobile networks,” the report said: “Most traffic is generated indoors, where people typically spend the majority of their time. There is, however, a growing need to extend 5G mid-band coverage indoors to ensure a comprehensive 5G experience.” Carriers continue to deploy 5G “despite a weaker global economy and geopolitical uncertainties,” Ericsson found. Globally, about 280 providers have launched commercial 5G services, with more than 40 deploying a 5G stand-alone network. 5G stand-alone “is becoming well established,” which “enables new capabilities such as 5G native voice … and new services like network slicing and user equipment route selection policy,” the report said.

The FCC should make clear that, consistent with the national spectrum strategy, the 7.125-8.4 GHz band should be targeted for 5G and 6G, CTIA said in comments on an NPRM on implementing 2015 and 2019 decisions by the World Radiocommunication Conference. Most comments were short and urged the FCC to preserve the 60-meter band for amateur use. Replies were due Tuesday in docket 23-120.

The Cross-Sector Resiliency Forum, formed after Hurricane Michael in 2018, is proving useful as a liaison between the power and communications industries, but it's probably best left alone as a voluntary effort, without formal FCC rules, speakers said Wednesday during an FCBA Homeland Security and Emergency Communications Committee lunch. During an FCC forum last year on lessons learned during disasters, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel called for greater coordination between communications providers and power companies (see 2211170079).

One long-standing contention is that the odd number G’s -- 3G and 5G in particular -- aren’t as significant as the even numbered ones, Jeffrey Reed, Virginia Tech professor of electrical and computer engineering, said during an IEEE webinar Wednesday. But Reed predicted that over time 5G will start to meet expectations. “We’ve seen a lot of negative publicity about 5G lately,” but negative comments follow the introduction of every new generation of wireless technology, he said. The first generation was primitive, didn’t support data and security was “horrendous,” he said. With 2G the quality of voice calls initially was “horrible,” Reed said. 3G “promised a lot of data” but didn’t do a good job with video, and delivery was late, particularly for the European market, he said. “4G has its disappointments as well -- it brought us video, but its battery life was horrendous,” especially in the early days, he said: “There was a lot of hype behind 5G. We have yet to see the realization of low latency and massive machine-to-machine communications on a large scale.” But in all G’s, the standards eventually catch up with expectations, he said. “5G is still evolving and many of the capabilities will eventually be demonstrated,” he said. 5G will continue advancing over the next five years or longer “laying the foundation for 6G,” he said. Two advances almost universally expected for 6G are widespread use of AI in networks and greater energy savings, he said.