One of the biggest challenges to scaling small cell deployments is variability in regulatory regimes--it's difficult to establish a uniform process when the rules are different in every city in the country. To facilitate a speedier evolution to ultra-dense networks, the telecom industry and...
Government announced the creation of a 5G working group which will include officials and industry players
The government of Australia has developed a paper outlining a 5G policy for the country, including the establishment of a working group to drive the deployment of 5G mobile...
Who attends 3GPP meetings and why do they attend?
The men and women who attend 3GPP meetings come from companies around the world and across the entire wireless ecosystem. The member companies include mobile operators, handset manufacturers, infrastructure suppliers, test equipment companies, and modem chipset...
In conjunction with FOX, T-Mobile is accelerating deployment of new spectrum
T-Mobile US continues its effort to aggressively deploy its 600 MHz holdings. Following activation of rural sites in Maine and Wyoming, the carrier is now focusing its efforts on the high-value, high-density New York...
Part 96 of FCC rules could support LTE deployments in shared CBRS spectrum
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has yet to finalize Part 96 rules governing shared access to spectrum in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) frequencies, 3550 MHz to 3700 MHz. But this...
Qualcomm identifies gigabit LTE and 5G as 'mega technology trends'
As the 3GPP continues work on the standalone variant of the 5G New Radio standard, which is tracking for release mid-2018, the telecom industry is poised for gearing up for rapid commercialization. A big part...
5G is truly a global phenomenon, and 5G NR – the global 5G standard – is being designed to support all spectrum types and bands for global deployments starting in 2019. We recently sat down with Dean Brenner, SVP of  Spectrum Strategy & Tech...
Amid increasing Sprint/T-Mo merger chatter, wireless competition report says the market is "effective"
For the first time since 2009, the wireless industry's competitive landscape is "effective," according to the Federal Communications Commission's 20th annual report on wireless competition.
The three Republican commissioners, including Chairman Ajit Pai,...
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently closed its formal comment period in its effort to reverse Title II utility-style regulation of the internet and restore broadband to its traditional status as an information service – the same status that it enjoyed for nearly 20...
Latest 5G trials will be carried out by TIM and Fastweb with the support of Huawei
Italian operators TIM and Fastweb, together with Chinese vendor Huawei, said the Ministry of Economic Development (MISE) has awarded  spectrum in the 3.6-3.8 GHz frequencies to trial 5G technologies...
CBRS focus often on private LTE for enterprise and industry, but what what the fixed wireless access use case targeting rural broadband deployments?
The rugged Sierra Nevada foothills, which range to the northeast and southeast of Sacramento, Calif., are a difficult place to provide reliable...
As CBRS awaits the regulatory go-ahead, operator and vendor interest continues to pick up
In the 5G future--ideally at least--we'll see dynamic radio support for any blend of licensed, unlicensed and shared spectrum. To that last point, in the U.S. the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband...
Mayor Andy Berke wants other mid-size cities to leverage fiber for economic development
SAN FRANCISCO--The Chattanooga, Tenn., that Mayor Andy Berke grew up in "was a steel and foundry city. It was dying. Downtown was a great place to take a date because you could...
This is a critical time to ensure state public safety needs are met by FirstNet’s plans for the nationwide public safety broadband Network (NPSBN).  Wireless 20/20 has published a new white paper designed to help state officials and governors evaluate the available information, and...
Smart city initiatives and business development are goals of small cell outreach
While some city's take a combative posture toward wireless deployments for reasons ranging from community health concerns to aggressive siting fee structures, leaders in Berkeley, Calif., are actively looking for investment in small...
The number of small cell sites activated has long lagged beyond projections largely because there's not really a scalable deployment process. Carriers are planning to deploy thousands of small cells, which would, ideally, follow a uniform, one-size-fits-all process. But that's not the case. Each...
Fort Collins considering a moratorium on small cell deployments
On July 1, Colorado legislation went into effect that is designed to make it easier for network operators to install small cell equipment. HB 17-1193 requires cities to give carriers access to public rights-of-way, and imposes...
How to ascertain leadership in 3GPP; quality vs. quantity of technical contributions
Established in 1998, the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) united seven organizational partners into one group that works on telecommunications technological specifications that broadly cover radio access networks, services and systems, and core...
Rural broadband coverage is priority for T-Mobile 600 MHz plans
According to an Aug. 4 "ex parte notice" to the Federal Communications Commission, T-Mobile US is looking to "rapidly deploy" the 600 MHz spectrum the carrier purchased during the FCC-led incentive auction that concluded in...
At this point, there are nine states and one territory that have signed-off on FirstNet plans
States continue to opt-in into the national public safety LTE network that will be built by AT&T. Virginia was the first state to join the plan, followed by Arkansas, Wyoming...
Along with my colleague Alice Tornquist, I was on Capitol Hill in July speaking at an event sponsored by the Congressional Spectrum Caucus, a bipartisan group established in 2014 by Congressman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) to educate their colleagues about...
AT&T reportedly in talks to hammer out Time Warner merger conditions
AT&T is in talks with federal officials on what conditions would help its proposed merger with Time Warner gain final government approval, according to published reports.
Bloomberg reported that early-stage talks on Time Warner merger...
Qualcomm executives have repeatedly associated full realization of 5G--something pinned to the 2035 timeframe--as a $12 trillion global opportunity. But that comes with some qualifiers, perhaps chief among them the availability of new spectrum.
Last week Dean Brenner, Qualcomm senior vice president of spectrum strategy...
CCA warns against "dangerous consolidation of critical new bands"
The Competitive Carriers Association is staking out its positions on "5G" spectrum and siting, arguing that the Federal Communications Commission needs to ensure that national carriers don't hoard millimeter wave bands, as well as ensure that...
