The Global Mobile Suppliers Association says LTE-unlicensed and LTE-assisted access (LAA) are gaining momentum, consulting engineer Steven Crowley blogged. GMSA says 32 operators are investing in LAA across 21 countries, with six announcing launches. Another 11 operators announced investments in LTE-U networks. And 120 devices support LTE in unlicensed spectrum including the citizens broadband radio service band, Crowley noted. “LTE in unlicensed and shared spectrum remains at an ‘early stage’ worldwide with interest ‘high.’”

Sprint is in the midst of an upgrade, adding capacity to improve customers’ experience, a spokesperson emailed us responding to J.D. Power's report (see 1901170041) that Verizon won in six regions for wireless network reliability, with Sprint the last major carrier: “Our largest investment in years is under way to increase coverage, reliability and speed across the country in order to provide an improved network experience for our customers.” Sprint is rolling out “hundreds of thousands of small cells, upgrading existing cell sites,” and deploying LTE Advanced technologies nationwide, she said, saying recent new roaming agreements boosted its LTE coverage footprint by 30 percent. She cited Nielsen figures from a six-month test completed in November saying average download speeds are up 93 percent year over year, and Ookla found Sprint measured fastest for average download speeds in about 100 cities.

PdvWireless said it’s working with wireless carrier Southern Linc on an alliance of utilities and vendors that will assist the development of private wireless networks owned by and dedicated to utilities. “The alliance will aim to drive scale and innovation for the utility industry by creating a network of utility private broadband networks through centralized initiatives that may include; education and training, device testing and certification, vendor equipment testing and network deployment pilots, security, and integration and operational best practices to name a few,” said a Thursday news release.

Customer shift to unlimited data plans in rural areas is putting additional stress on wireless networks, affecting reliability for carriers that haven’t invested in 4G LTE wireless infrastructure, said a Thursday J.D. Power report. Wireless network problems are rising for customers in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and North Central regions, but problems decreased in the Southeast, it said. Suburban customers experienced fewer problems than rural or urban users. Verizon led the major carriers with the lowest network quality problems per 100 connections (PP100), in call, messaging and data quality in each region, J.D. Power said, and it tied on data with T-Mobile in the Northeast. Overall in the Northeast, Verizon led with a score of 10 PP100, followed by T-Mobile (11), AT&T Wireless (12) and Sprint (15), a pattern similar to that of the Mid-Atlantic states. In the Southeast, Verizon led with 8, followed by AT&T and T-Mobile at 11 and Sprint at 13. U.S. Cellular finished second (10) in rankings in the North Central region behind Verizon (8) and ahead of AT&T (11), T-Mobile (12) and Sprint (15). In the Southwest, AT&T tied with T-Mobile (12), just ahead of Sprint (13). In the West, T-Mobile (11), AT&T (12) and Sprint (13) followed Verizon (10). Verizon crowed Thursday in a news release, saying results showed “we’re doing many things right.” Mike Haberman, Verizon network vice president, credited last year’s rollout of LTE Advanced technologies including carrier aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM in over 1,500 markets for “faster speeds, better connectivity and more bandwidth for customers.” Other carriers didn’t comment. The study, fielded July-December, was based on responses from 32,159 wireless customers.

Some don't think regulators should or would care where executives with big deals pending spend their nights in Washington, even if it's at a hotel owned by President Donald Trump (see 1901160037). T-Mobile CEO John Legere, whose stays at a Trump property blocks from the White House were criticized Wednesday, tweeted later that day that he respects "this process and am working to get our merger done the right way. I trust regulators will make their decision based on the benefits it will bring to the US, not based on hotel choices." Free State Foundation President Randolph May questioned if anyone should care where executives stay. Though he thinks the FCC public interest standard is too vague, he tweeted Thursday, "I've never imagined it to be so indeterminate as to encompass @FCC considering which hotels applicants' CEOs stayed in!”

Vermont challenged wireless coverage data that carriers sent the FCC for the Mobility Fund Phase-II auction. The FCC is investigating if top wireless carriers submitted incorrect coverage maps in violation of MF-II rules (see 1812070048). Carrier data showed 1,310 out of 25,000 square kilometers in Vermont would be eligible, but at its own expense, the Vermont Department of Public Service tested coverage on major roads, downtowns and village centers, and found it should be eligible in 4,186 square kilometers of the state, the agency said Wednesday. “Anyone who drives Vermont’s roads experiences that the industry’s coverage data is not accurate,” said DPS Telecommunications Director Clay Purvis. “Many of the areas in Vermont shown as served at 5 Mbps on their coverage maps actually lack sufficient coverage to even make a call.” Vermont Public Service Commissioner June Tierney hopes “our challenge will be fully sustained by the FCC” and “companies will seek grants to serve the expanded territory made eligible through our efforts in the forthcoming FCC grant program.” CTIA and the FCC didn’t comment Thursday.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr expressed sympathy over the death of a 23-year-old tower technician from Colorado, who fell to his death last week from a cell tower in South Dakota. “My prayers go out to the family and friends of Andrew Michael Psomas,” Carr tweeted Tuesday. True North Tower, which employed Psomas, didn’t comment. A spokesperson for the Pennington County, South Dakota, Sheriff's Office confirmed the tower death.

Chat agents for Verizon Wireless pitched the carrier’s six-month free offer for Apple Music Wednesday, after the company announced Tuesday subscribers to its Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans would get the streaming music service for free beginning Thursday. “The promotion we offer is not a free trial, you get Apple Music free for 6 months if you have an Unlimited plan,” a chat agent told us. The monthly cost went up to $9.99 monthly after six months. Tuesday, Verizon noted it had been offering six months of Apple Music free to Unlimited customers and “starting January 17, Apple Music will be included in Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans,” plus tax. Customers opting for the lowest of the three Unlimited plans -- Go Unlimited -- will still be offered the six-month free offer for Apple Music, going up to $10 monthly after the promo period. Prices for the three subscription plans start at $40 per month for Go Unlimited (480p streaming, unlimited talk and text), $50 for Beyond (720p streaming and 22 GB data) and $60 for Above (720p streaming and 75 GB data). With the added Apple Music feature, subscribers to the top two plans can download songs or access streams on iOS and Android smartphones, smartwatches, smart speakers, computers and car playback platforms, said Verizon. “In times of congestion, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic (only after 22 GB per month on Beyond Unlimited and 75 GB per month on Above Unlimited).” A Verizon spokesman didn't comment on the disparity in messaging but said for Beyond and Above customers who are signed up for the six-month Apple Music offer, "no action is needed for the new offer."

The 3.5 GHz band citizens broadband radio service band potentially will give businesses a bigger role in shaping how wireless is used, said wireless adviser firm Senza Fili. The band could be the future of sharing, the report said. “Even heavily trafficked licensed cellular and unlicensed bands are not used at capacity throughout the footprint and throughout the day, especially as we move from high-density urban locations toward rural areas,” it said. “Even new technologies such as 5G and Wi-Fi 6 cannot keep up with the increase in traffic, from both human users and IoT applications, without access to new spectrum or better spectrum reuse. And this is where spectrum sharing and densification play a major role.” A Google panelist sought such sharing earlier this week (see 1901150043).

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling it lacked jurisdiction over Chinese defendant ZTE in a suit brought by NTCH-West Tenn. “This is a case about jurisdiction. It involves unsuccessful and prolonged business ventures, numerous corporate partners and affiliates, and a foreign defendant,” ruled Judge Deborah Cook in the decision filed Wednesday. “The appeal concerns a simple question: Did NTCH-TN establish sufficient facts supporting the exercise of personal jurisdiction over Chinese defendant ZTE Corp.?” The appeals court panel decided it didn’t. The case involved network equipment ZTE sold the wireless carrier through sales-arm ZTE USA. NTCH initially bought the equipment for use by Florida subsidiary PTA-FLA and ran into problems, the panel said. When NTCH exited the Florida market, NTCH decided to install the equipment instead in Tennessee, where it “experienced the same network malfunctions that PTA-FLA had confronted in Florida,” the 6th Circuit held. NTCH-Tenn “proffers insufficient facts to make a prima facie showing” that ZTE’s connections with Tennessee “are substantial enough that it should reasonably have anticipated being hauled into court there,” Cook wrote: NTCH “fails to demonstrate that the district court improperly construed facts in favor of” ZTE. Judges Damon Keith and Joan Larsen were the other members of the 3-0 panel. NTCH didn't comment.