T-Mobile was the fastest wireless carrier in the U.S. in Q4, with a median download speed of 151.37 Mbps on modern chipsets, up from 116.14 Mbps in Q3 2022, Ookla said Tuesday. Verizon Wireless (69.01 Mbps) and AT&T (65.57) were “distant runners up.” T-Mobile also had the fastest upload speed at 12.53 Mbps, topping Verizon (9.33) and AT&T (7.98). “T-Mobile had the highest Consistency in the U.S. during Q4 2022, with 86.8% of results showing at least 5 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload speeds,” the report said: “Verizon Wireless and AT&T followed at 82.4% and 81.1%, respectively.” On the percentage of time 5G-capable devices spend on a 5G network, T-Mobile (69.2%) and AT&T (64.5%) bested Verizon (34.3%). The states with the fastest median download speeds were Minnesota, Illinois and New Jersey. Mississippi finished last. “In addition to topping national rankings, T-Mobile’s network proved fastest in 45 states and the District of Columbia as well as in 86 of the 100 most populous U.S. cities,” T-Mobile said Tuesday.

Smith Bagley asked the FCC for a three-month extension of the waivers of its Lifeline recertification and reverification for customers in tribal areas. The waivers otherwise expire Jan. 31, said a Tuesday filing in docket 11-42. "Historic inequalities caused Tribal communities to shudder more than the rest of the country during COVID-19 pandemic, and conditions in the communities have yet to recover as new public health challenges arise," the carrier said: "The day-to-day difficulties associated with contacting and obtaining responsive documents from remote Tribal customers have not improved."

Federated Wireless said Tuesday it’s working with low-cost carrier Mobi to provide spectrum access system and environmental sensing capability services so the carrier can “bring its Citizens Broadband Radio Service network online throughout the Hawaiian Islands.” Through the use of CBRS, “high-speed broadband services will be available in hard-to-reach regions of the islands and will enable Mobi to triple channel utilization and enhance network performance,” Federated said. Mobi “will be able to leverage their [priority access] licenses and the lower 100 MHz of the CBRS band to bring reliable, high-speed broadband services throughout the Hawaiian Islands,” said Chris Swan, Federated chief commercial officer: “The extension of our ESC network into Hawaii rounds out the expansion of our CBRS operations across the United States.”

Comments are due Feb. 16, replies March 20, on an FCC NPRM on proposed rules to more precisely route wireless 911 calls and texts to public safety answering points through location-based routing, said a Tuesday Federal Register notice. Commissioners approved the NPRM in December (see 2212210047).

Dish Network plans to offer, “subject to market and other conditions,” $500 million in senior secured notes to help fund its 5G build, it announced Tuesday. That follows a $2 billion debt offering in November.

Semtech completed its buy of Sierra Wireless in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.2 billion and expected to nearly double the company’s annual revenue. The buy “adds approximately US$100 million of high-margin IoT Cloud services recurring revenues,” said a Thursday news release: “Semtech expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive … and to generate US$40 million of run rate operational synergies within 12-18 months post close.” Top Sierra Wireless executives joined the company -- Tom Mueller as executive vice president of the IoT System Products Group, Ross Gray as vice president-IoT Connected Services Group and Pravin Desale as senior vice president-IoT engineering.

July tests of interference by low-power indoor devices in the 6 GHz band to FirstEnergy’s licensed operations there raised potential concerns, the company and Edison Electric Institute told the FCC. They reported on a virtual meeting last week with staff from the Office of Engineering and Technology to discuss the tests, in a filing Thursday in docket 18-295. The 6 GHz incumbents noted the “additive nature of interference from LPIs operating both within and outside of the microwave beamwidth.” Tests confirmed “a single LPI can cause harmful interference” and the “limited effectiveness of contention-based protocol to reduce signal transmission power.” FirstNet said it did its study in the summer during peak foliage “to observe the impact of unlicensed LPI 6E” devices “during the ‘best case’ time of the year for minimizing interference.”

The FCC gave preliminary approval to RED Technologies as a spectrum access system operator in the citizens broadband radio service band. The company “satisfied the Commission’s SAS laboratory testing requirements and is approved to begin its initial commercial deployment,” said a Thursday notice by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology: The FCC “in coordination with NTIA and the DoD, will review RED’s ICD Report and will publicly announce if RED successfully completes ICD and receives final certification to operate a SAS.”

Driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for wireless connectivity, private networks are enjoying record growth, though challenges remain, 5G Americas said in a new white paper. “We are witnessing organizations deploying private 4G and moving to private 5G, many vendors building solutions, as well as launching a variety of offers,” 5G Americas said. “The future is bright with many market observers and analysts also reporting increased interest and demand for private 5G across almost all industry verticals,” the paper said: “Smart manufacturing and factories of the future have been defined in great detail on paper. However, realizing and deploying these factories have not happened as fast as some have expected due to real world logistics issues such as lack of necessary equipment, delays in supply chain, as well as complexities of integration with brownfield production facilities.” 5G Americas President Chris Pearson blogged, “Compared to other access technologies, 5G networks offer three main strengths: 1) data throughput potentially up to 10 gigabits per second, which is 10-100 times faster than 4G LTE 2) network latency that is potentially below 10 milliseconds and theoretically as low as 1 millisecond, offering incredibly precise timing capabilities and 3) management of up to 1 million devices per square kilometer, allowing placement of a staggering number of IoT sensors and devices in very high density on an enterprise campus or factory floor.”

Representatives of Federated Wireless and Charter Communications met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to discuss “the benefits of spectrum sharing,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-258. The citizens broadband radio service spectrum sharing model “facilitates the growth of mobile competition and has enabled new entrants into the market, many of whom are using the band to develop their own private networks for uses such as industrial automation, artificial intelligence, and predictive maintenance, in environments ranging from warehouses, ports, factories, airports, and office buildings, in rural as well as densely populated areas, supporting supply chain efficiency,” the companies said. CTIA raised questions whether the CBRS sharing model is a viable alternative to exclusive-use licensed spectrum (see 2212120050).