Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on those sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
T-Mo tests 600 MHz 5G
Last month T-Mobile US tapped its millimeter wave spectrum holdings to turn up 5G services in parts of Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York to coincide with availability of the Samsung S10 5G. But the company’s plan to deliver nationwide 5G is pinned to its trove of 600 MHz spectrum, as well as a pending merger with Sprint that would bring with it access to 2.5 GHz in more than 100 major markets. This week the carrier provided an update on its ongoing testing of 5G transmission at 600 MHz, announcing a successful data session using Qualcomm’s commercially available X55 modem, RF transceiver and RF front-end. Ericsson provided gear from its Ericsson Radio System portfolio. T-Mo has for some time differentiated itself from competitors by calling out its ability to provide “5G for all” using its 600 MHz spectrum, and dinged AT&T and Verizon for pushing millimeter wave which has shown in excess of 2 Gbps down in field testing albeit with limited coverage range. … Read more
Huawei protests being blacklisted
Chinese vendor Huawei has not yet seen any benefit from President Donald’s Trump recent decision to allow U.S. firms to sell components to the company and urged the U.S. government to remove the company from a security blacklist, Chinese press reported Huawei’s chairman Liang Hua as saying. The executive said that the decision to put Huawei in a list that restricts exports of components and software is “unjust and unfair.” “We’re not saying that just because things have relaxed a little, we’re fine with being on the blacklist,” he said. “Actually, we believe our listing on the blacklist should be lifted completely,” the executive said during a press conference. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said that U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Huawei as long as the transactions won’t present a “great, national emergency problem.” Trump made these comments during a press conference at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, after a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, which had the main aim of discussing an impasse in the ongoing trade dispute between the two countries. Despite the U.S. export restrictions, Huawei revenue grew in the first half of this year, Liang said. … Read more
CBRS set for commercial deployment
The bureaucratic wheels continue to turn in the process to get initial commercial deployments of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service underway. It’s … so … close. On Friday, a blog post confirmed that the final test reports for the first wave of Spectrum Access System administrators — which include Federated Wireless, CommScope subsidiary Comsearch and Google — were officially completed and submitted to the commercial participants on Thursday. By Friday afternoon, Federated Wireless had already submitted its final SAS test results to the Federal Communications Commission for review, and the CBRS Alliance put out a statement saying that it expects all of the SAS administrators who have received results to submit those reports to the FCC within days — which will complete all of the related industry work necessary for initial commercial deployments (ICD) to begin. The only hurdles left to clear before initial commercial deployment (ICD) can start, are the review of those SAS test results by the FCC, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Department of Defense, and — assuming that the results are acceptable — the official authorization of the SAS administrators, based on those results. Federated had previously submitted the draft results of its testing in an effort to get the review process jump-started and said that its SAS passed all of the more than 1,000 tests conducted by Institute for Telecommunications Sciences, which is part of NTIA (the draft and official results submitted to the FCC are redacted, citing competitive concerns). … Read more
Verizon tests a cloud-native core
In Hillsboro, Oregon, Verizon is running a trial that it says is both an industry first and a glimpse of its network’s future: a fully cloud-native, container-based element of its Evolved Packet Core, operating on its live network and serving customers. The proof-of-concept trial with Ericsson is the first container- based wireless EPC technology deployment in a commercial network in the world, according to Verizon and Ericsson. “This particular proof-of-concept and the capabilities that we’re seeing with the benefits of cloud-native — that absolutely is a glimpse into the future,” said Bill Stone, VP of technology development and planning for Verizon. Stone said that Verizon has been diligently working to virtualize a good portion of its core network, and “this is the next step in the process, where we’re moving from virtual machines to cloud native.” That’s important, according to Stone, because while virtualization provides some reduction in operational and hardware expenses, moving to contained-based operations “greatly increases some of the operational simplicity.” He said that in the trial, Verizon is leveraging orchestration capability from open-source Kubernetes that enables it to bring in additional capacity much more quickly, with much greater agility. … Read more
DoJ looks into Big Tech
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is opening up an inquiry into the business practices of big tech companies, just as Facebook has agreed to a $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission and major changes to how it handles and monetizes users’ personal data. The DoJ said in announcing the inquiry that it will focus on “practices that create or maintain structural impediments to greater competition and user benefits” among companies which provide search, social media and some retail services.” While the DoJ’s statement did not mention specific companies, the stock prices of Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Facebook were all impacted by the announcement. Amazon and its CEO Jeff Bezos have been regular targets of President Donald Trump, who has also claimed that Alphabet’s Google and YouTube operations censor conservative viewpoints; that Google is attempting to “rig” elections and should be investigated; and Google and Facebook ought to be sued by the government, although he has been vague about what the legal basis for that would be. Trump did say, in a recent recent interview on Fox Business, that in regard to action toward big tech companies, “you may need legislation in order to create competition.” Democratic presidential candidate and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has also taken aim at big tech companies, calling for their break-up and laying out plans that offer a route for doing so by rolling back previous mergers as well as legislation that would prevent tech companies from both offering a marketplace and participating in it, as Amazon does. In May of this year, the White House asked Internet users to share experiences of being censored on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social media sites, in a survey which claimed that “too many Americans have seen their accounts suspended, banned, or fraudulently reported for unclear ‘violations’ of user policies.” … Read more
Sports venues seen as key to future 5G deployments
Communications infrastructure and services provider ExteNet Systems sees sport venues in the U.S. as key areas to be considered by cities for the future deployment of 5G service, Greg Spraetz, SVP of the real estate solutions group at ExteNet Systems, told In-Building Tech. Sporting events draw a multitude of visitors to any city. Mega events like the Big Game propel network investment years in advance. The network investment is not limited to the venue or stadium ? it permeates to the surrounding areas, hotels, and other areas that people will visit or travel to during the mega events, the executive said. Additionally, the long-term positive impacts of the big game day mean that the technology deployed and investments made by the carriers and us remain long after the event has happened which is very valuable to the city and visitors, he added. Spraetz also said that sports venues typically have multi-carrier networks and have the capacity and coverage needs to demand the newest technologies such as 5G. ExteNet Systems designs, builds and operate networks in stadiums and has already deployed these networks in over 30 mega-stadiums across the U.S. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
