The FCC will host a workshop Jan. 14 at its headquarters on the 2.5 GHz band rural tribal priority window opening Feb. 3, it said Monday. It said more information, including specifics about the application filing process and the workshop, will be posted at its rural tribal window website by Jan. 6.

T-Mobile continued the 5G drumroll Monday, lighting up its low-band 600 MHz network and announcing preorders for two phones due in stores Friday. Metro by T-Mobile will launch the first U.S.-wide prepaid 5G Friday, it said. It spans 200 million-plus people, 5,000 towns and 1 million square miles, covering “more people in more places” than rivals, said the carrier. It pitched the $900 and $1,300 5G phones to early adopters. In a promotion, line switchers can get the $900 OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren for free with a trade-in of select smartphones and a 24-month contract. Buyers of the Samsung Galaxy 10 Plus 5G ($1,299) can get up to $1,300 off via 24 or 26 monthly bill credits or any Samsung Galaxy S10 or Note10 of equal or lesser value when they add a line. The phones are ready to use Sprint’s 2.5 GHz 5G spectrum "when available if the merger closes,” it said. T-Mobile CEO John Legere said (see 1902270030) the combination of its low-band and millimeter-wave spectrum and Sprint’s mid-band spectrum would create “the highest capacity network in U.S. history -- a whopping 400 MHz+ total spectrum for customers nationwide on average.” A map shows consumers 5G coverage, "down to their neighborhoods."

French technology company Hap2U will bow a sensory intelligent touch screen for smartphones at CES, the first haptics touch screen that allows users to feel and sense objects viewed in photos, it emailed Wednesday. Backed by $4.4 million in funding from Daimler, Hap2U has filed some 20 patents on its haptics technology with the goal of making tactile surfaces more intuitive by integrating tangible touch sensations. The technology can also be used in wood, metal and plastic, it said.

September imports of smartphones from China spiked 44 percent sequentially to 15.8 million, according to Census Bureau statistics we accessed last week through the International Trade Commission. Average customs value was $327.62, up 48 percent. The U.S. imported just under 20 million smartphones from all countries in September, a 20 percent increase. Dec. 15, additional tariffs are to start on such goods.

Three straight years of smartphone market “contraction” will end in 2020 when global smartphone shipments are expected to return to growth on China’s “ambitious 5G plans,” reported IDC Tuesday. IDC forecast 1.5 percent unit growth to slightly more than 1.4 billion smartphones. It predicts 190 million 5G smartphones will ship in 2020. That 14 percent of total smartphones shipped would far exceed the first year of 4G shipments in 2010 when 1.3 percent of shipments were 4G handsets, it said.

Samsung Display leapfrogged BOE in Q3 to retake top global smartphone display-panel share on “record-high demand” for active-matrix OLED screens, reported IHS Markit Monday. Samsung had 29 percent of smartphone display shipments, leaping 7.7 points from Q2. All major smartphone brands “have adopted AMOLED technology in their high-end models in 2019,” the researcher said.

Comments are due Dec. 26, replies Jan. 27, on possible use of the 960-1164 MHz and 5030-5091 MHz bands by unmanned aerial system operations, the FCC Wireless Bureau said in a public notice Monday. It said the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 requires the agency, NTIA and FAA to submit to Congress a report about allowing but not requiring UAS communications on those bands.

The FCC will require by Dec. 13 precise delivery of wireless emergency alerts to 100 percent of the geotargeted area specified by alert originators, with no more than a one-tenth of a mile overshoot, for both new mobile devices offered for sale and existing devices capable of being upgraded to support the new standard, said a public notice Monday for docket 15-94. The rules were adopted in 2016, and the deadline was Nov. 30 (see 1907010036), but formal testing procedures weren't available until Nov. 15. In addition to giving providers time to test their networks and make adjustments accordingly, this extension lets participating commercial mobile service providers "avoid implementing network changes during high-traffic periods, including Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday," the Public Safety Bureau said.

That 5G wireless service is “super fast” but scarcely available are among key “things to know” about the technology for consumers weighing a 5G smartphone purchase this holiday, said Opensignal Friday. The mobile analytics firm measured 5G service performance in the U.S., Australia, Switzerland and South Korea, and found users are experiencing download speeds exceeding 1 Gbps, with U.S. speeds topping out at 1.8 Gbps, it said. “As 5G evolves, we expect to continue to see increasing speeds.” Only 1 percent of the speed tests Opensignal did recently “actually used an active 5G connection,” it said. “While users may have a 5G phone, it will take a bit longer to find ubiquitous connectivity.” Though industry 5G chatter has been going on for a while, “the technology is still in its early days and there is lots more to come,” it said. Future stand-alone 5G networks “will require totally new core infrastructure, which take longer to create, but will help usher in some of the biggest benefits of 5G such as lowering latency and improving network congestion.”

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment on a waiver request by Leica Geosystems to allow its Ictos radar system on commercial drones. The system uses multiple radar modules in the 60-64 GHz for hazard detection in flight. Leica says the technology would permit an unmanned aerial vehicle to “acquire close-up views of structural exteriors that would otherwise be difficult to safely obtain,” OET said Thursday: “Leica states that the collision between a UAV and a structure that it is scanning risks damage to the UAV and to the structure, as well as injury to persons on the ground.” Comments in docket 19-350 are due 30 days after publication, replies 15 days later.