U.S. wireless carriers are performing well during a period of global turmoil and inflation, but tougher times loom, MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett said in a Thursday research note. “U.S. wireless carriers are entirely domestic, with no exposure to European energy shocks or Eurozone recession risks,” he said. “They have no Eurozone earnings and no export exposure to an excessively strong dollar. If there is a U.S. recession, their services are, by and large, indispensable.” But they also face challenges, especially keeping up subscriber growth, he said. Recent growth is “unsustainable” and “far in excess of population growth, and is seemingly poised for a fall,” he said. “A drop in subscriber growth would probably only increase the pressure on carriers to compete on the basis of price and promotions, making matters worse.” Moffett sees T-Mobile as the major player best positioned to “weather” the storm ahead. “The company is growing share of gross additions and is poised to see declines in churn rate,” he said. “With the industry’s best pricing and the industry’s best network, and with still many growth opportunities ahead (not least in rural America), we believe T-Mobile’s share gains are poised to accelerate,” he said.

Smith Bagley asked the FCC for a three-month extension of its Lifeline waivers, set to expire March 31, “as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to pose challenges for both consumers and providers.” The company and its service area “continue to face significant obstacles associated with being located on remote Tribal lands,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 11-42: The Tribal areas the company serves in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah “are sparsely populated with limited access to transportation, water, electricity, and Internet access. … These challenges make it extremely difficult to make timely contact with subscribers to request that necessary documents for reverification and recertification be brought to” a company store.

Qualcomm urged the FCC to finish a proceeding on the use of the 5030-5091 MHz band by drones, in a call with staff from the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology. “Qualcomm expects the vast majority of [unmanned aircraft vehicle] missions will be carried out largely autonomously, taking advantage of UAV-to-UAV direct communications links and other on-board sensors once a pre-mission flight plan is approved and securely communicated to the unmanned aircraft,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket RM-11798: “Qualcomm explained that it is important that a dedicated and protected spectrum band, such as the 5030-5091 MHz band, be used to support these important … communications functions, instead of unlicensed spectrum that is subject to high levels of unwanted and uncontrollable noise, particularly in metropolitan areas where most drones are expected to be operating.” Qualcomm urged the FCC to allocate 20 MHz “for a direct UAV to UAV communications mode, which drones will use to communicate directly with one another to coordinate safe and efficient flights and also for drones to broadcast Remote ID information in compliance with FAA regulations," with two 20.5 MHz blocks “licensed exclusively to support network communications through which drones will communicate via cellular networks for Control and Non-Payload Communications.”

T-Mobile is “absolutely on track” to shutter its 3G network starting March 31, Chief Financial Officer Peter Osvaldik said at a Deutsche Bank investment conference Tuesday. Osvaldik said AT&T and Verizon won’t be able to catch up soon with T-Mobile’s 5G deployment. “We're the only ones with a 5G stand-alone core, and you really need a 5G stand-alone core to enable a lot of these use cases that you're hearing about -- network slicing, creating private networks, things like that,” he said: That's why business customers “are tremendously excited to work with us because they know we have the network capabilities before you even talk about the actual coverage differentiation that we have on the mid-band layer and the low-band layer of the network,” he said. 5G won’t be built based on millimeter wave spectrum or small cells, he said: “That's not a way you can generate ubiquitous coverage. The way we approached it is a macro-tower-focused network.” T-Mobile had to deploy 5G on three times as many towers to get from 100 million covered POPs to 200 million, he said. That's what other carriers “have ahead of them to get from 100 million to 200 million, and it's going to take them a while to get to 200 million,” he said.

The FCC asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to extend abeyance on a lawsuit by the League of California Cities challenging the FCC’s June 2020 wireless infrastructure declaratory ruling (see 2111160048). “Further abeyance will provide an opportunity for a fully-constituted Commission to consider how to proceed in this case,” the commission wrote Tuesday in case 20-71765. The FCC noted a full Senate vote to confirm Gigi Sohn as commissioner hasn’t been scheduled.

Comments are due April 18, replies May 16, on an NPRM seeking comment on whether to adopt four new or updated standards for equipment authorization and certification of the telecommunication certification bodies that review new RF devices, said a notice for Thursday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved the NPRM 4-0 before their January meeting (see 2201260016).

The FCC should “ensure that unserved agricultural areas are included in the final broadband data maps” and “coordinate closely” with the Department of Agriculture and other agencies “to obtain information about coverage in agricultural areas when it is developing the maps,” said a Deere filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-195. Deere representatives met via videoconference with officials from the FCC Broadband Data Task Force, the Rural Broadband Auctions Task Force and other officials on the importance of maps and broadband funding in rural America. The “Cultivated Land” layer created by the Agriculture Department should be included in federal maps, Deere said.

The NFL told the FCC it didn’t need to use an agency waiver to use citizens broadband radio service spectrum to operate its in-stadium, coach-to-coach communications system during a game in which it lost connection with a spectrum access system manager. In a single incident in Atlanta Nov. 18, a fiber cut to the Lumen network "took the Lumen ISP connection down at that stadium,” the league said: “The Verizon LTE system was automatically switched in and there was never any loss of communication with the SAS.” The NFL said “the level of ISP redundancy implemented in each stadium is sufficient to make it highly improbable that the CBRS system will be operated pursuant to the waiver.” The filing was posted Monday in docket 21-111.

Mavenir representatives said they held a call with FCC staff on a February filing urging the commission to adopt open and interoperable interfaces for radio access networks, disputing claims that agency action isn’t ripe (see 2202090039). “Consider incumbent Radio Access Network (RAN) manufacturer dominance on an individual network and geographical basis, consistent with customer purchasing decisions,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-63. If the FCC does so, “Mavenir believes the facts will show that the Commission should require interoperability and the development of open interfaces for RAN equipment,” the filing said.

AT&T is in the market for more spectrum, Chief Financial Officer Pascal Desroches told a Deutsche Bank conference Monday, not elaborating on what bands the company may pursue. “Whenever something comes to the market, we’re going to evaluate it because we think this is a core asset that we will need in order to deliver the quality of services that we aspire to deliver,” he said. AT&T led bidding in the 3.45 GHz auction and was second after Verizon in the C-band auction (see 2201260055). Desroches noted AT&T’s recent uptick in post-paid phone adds, outpacing T-Mobile and Verizon. “For several years, we had been under-investing” in wireless and “hadn’t been investing in keeping our customers,” he said: “That changed in 2020, and we really stepped up our investment to a point where we are matching our competitors and the results have been very clear. We have, during that time, led the industry in share. We are growing both top line and bottom line for our largest business, and we expect that to continue.” Desroches said AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile each has “a really good 5G network and they’re going to continue to get better” as more spectrum comes online. AT&T expects to lose some customers following its ongoing 3G sunset (see 2202240002) but not to take a major hit. “We expect to see some 3G subscribers churning off, and so that’s going to impact us some,” he said. On its fiber build, AT&T isn’t “immune” to supply-chain problems, Desroches said. “We have first priority on supplies,” he said: “We are in great position on access to labor relative to others, and what we’re seeing is while there were issues in the summer of last year, those issues have been largely resolved and we exited 2021 with good momentum, and that continues in 2022.” Desroches also said its fixed-wireless offering is well suited to less-densely populated areas, but in other markets it doesn’t make sense because the operating costs are higher. “Why not just simply go and do it right the first time … build fiber and bet on the long term that the trends are in your favor,” he said.