Subscribers in more than half the U.S. could use a 5G phone on a 5G network in 2020, said Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg on CNBC Friday. The market will be “different for sure” if T-Mobile buys Sprint and Dish Network launches its own network, he said. “We will not change our strategy." Vestberg predicted T-Mobile/Sprint will probably be completed with “some hurdles left.” The market has been competitive for years, he said. Vestberg said to “get the best out of 5G” requires high-band spectrum. “I think we have the best engineers in the industry both tuning and fixing networks. Other guys really need to do a lot of things to catch up," he said. His team is “executing on our 5G strategy, and we're now up to 15 markets” (see 1910250022) Vestberg said during a call with analysts. The uptake rate is rising for 5G phones and all handsets “coming out next year will be 5G-capable,” he said. Verizon reported profit of $5.3 billion and revenue of $32.9 billion, both beating consensus estimates. Wireline revenue fell 3.8 percent year over year. It reported 193,000 retail postpaid net adds, including 239,000 phones, and retail postpaid churn of 0.79 percent. “Wireline results, while admittedly secondary to wireless, were nothing short of awful,” MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett wrote investors: “Verizon’s wireless business is, for the first time in memory, lagging AT&T’s." AT&T, not Verizon, "has the better story to tell about balancing 5G speed AND coverage,” the analyst emailed.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks told the Mobile World Congress 5G will play a role in cutting global warming: “5G will take smart grid technology to the next level.” It will help smart factories, buildings and homes adjust lighting and heating to reduce energy consumption, and will assist precision farming, he said: “Autonomous electric vehicles will connect with each other and the transportation infrastructure to plan the most efficient routes to our destinations and reduce emissions by over 80 percent compared to gasoline-powered" AVs. Thursday, Verizon noted that Starks' MWC speech disclosed the carrier's "working to achieve carbon neutrality for our 5G network and supply chain by 2025." Tuesday, Starks and fellow Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote for The Hill that they have been "exploring ways in which Congress and the FCC can work together to deploy next generation networks like 5G and encourage telecommunications companies to help address climate change."

T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray briefed FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on the company’s progress in deploying in the 600 MHz band, said a filing in docket 12-268. Clearing of the 600 MHz band is proceeding on, or ahead of, the schedule the Commission established,” T-Mobile said, posted Thursday. Other T-Mobile executives discussed the C band with Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp and Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale. “We urged the Commission to make a minimum of 300 megahertz of C-band spectrum available for mobile broadband and provide certainty regarding the amount and timing of the spectrum that will be made available," the company said.

A key goal of the U.S. at the World Radiocommunication Conference should be shoring up its positions on mid-band spectrum, especially the 3.1-3.3 GHz band, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said at the Mobile World Congress. “The Americas region is supporting the study of spectrum from 3.3 GHz to 15.35 GHz, with specific bands to be determined later,” O’Rielly said: “It does not include bands the FCC was seeking, such as 3.1 to 3.3 GHz. That is a mistake and something that can be fixed in Egypt,” site of the conference. The U.S. should guard against anything that would undermine the use of the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed, he said. “We have to ensure that unnecessarily restrictive technical protections are not adopted, under the guise of protecting users in adjacent bands, that could hamper 5G operations,” he said in remarks posted Thursday. WRC starts next week. O’Rielly said other federal agencies should speed their look at the 3.1 to 3.55 GHz band. "The federal government users have been told by Congress to study these bands, but this process has been painfully drawn out," he said: "After signaling that they would relinquish the upper portion of the band from 3.45 to 3.55 GHz, the Department of Defense instead, did an unnecessary sharing feasibility study. This is spectrum that should have already been turned over for commercial use."

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai indicated that the 2.5 GHz auction will follow on the heels of the 3.5 GHz auction, slated to start in June. “With almost 200 megahertz, this is the largest contiguous band of terrestrial, flexible use spectrum below 3 GHz in the United States,” Pai told the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Alliance Wednesday. Given the timetable in a recent Office of Economics and Analytics auction report (see 1909300064), that could put the start of the 2.5 GHz before the end of the CBRS sale and Sept. 30. Work continues on CBRS, Pai said. “We can’t let up, because our work is not done.” Spectrum access system administrators “need to report back to us to let us know that the dynamic sharing is working without any interference problems, so we’ll be monitoring that closely,” he said: “If the sharing regime works as we expect, we can continue to fine tune the system, adjusting protection zones and power levels.” An order approved by commissioners in July rewriting rules for the band 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band, including an eventual auction (see 1907100054), is partly effective Nov. 25, with other parts 184 days after publication, says Friday's Federal Register.

Verizon installed its 5G Ultra Wideband service in Corning’s fiber cable manufacturing facility in Hickory, North Carolina. “Corning will use Verizon’s 5G technology to test how 5G can enhance functions such as factory automation and quality assurance in one of the largest fiber optic cable manufacturing facilities,” Verizon said Wednesday.

Comments are due Oct. 28, replies Nov. 12 on a public notice FCC commissioners approved 5-0 last month (see 1909260040) on rules for an auction of the licensed part of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. The auction is to start June 25. The docket is 19-244, said Wednesday's Federal Register.

CTIA supports unlicensed sharing in part of the 6 GHz band, “only with a rigorous interference protection framework that provides for positive control of all unlicensed devices,” the group said in meetings with aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. CTIA supports “licensing the upper portion of the 6 GHz band for flexible-use services and relocating incumbent,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. Tuesday, Pai said the band is critical for the future of Wi-Fi, in Q&A with CTIA's chief (see 1910220057).

Police need at least an estimated floor number for emergency calls from wireless devices, Massachusetts State Police Telecommunications Director Matthew Barstow said in a letter posted Wednesday in FCC docket 07-114. “A raw vertical estimate is of little operational value if it is relative to height above mean sea level (AMSL) or above ground level (AGL),” Barstow wrote. “9‐1‐1 centers like ours simply do not have the resources to create and maintain indoor maps for buildings in our jurisdictions. Even if we did, we would not have the ability to translate AMSL or AGL to a floor, or visualize a three dimensional point in space.”

T-Mobile provided the FCC an update on an earlier response to a document request a year ago from the agency. “T-Mobile recently became aware that two documents previously provided to the FCC include inadvertently produced materials that are legally privileged,” the company said in docket 18-197, posted Tuesday. The documents were redacted and resubmitted, using FCC procedures for “claw backs,” T-Mobile said.