Next year will be the year for 5G, blogged T-Mobile CEO John Legere Thursday. “We’ll see real, live 5G,” Legere predicted. “Not the 5G Verizon and AT&T are touting, but real, mobile, standards-based 5G. And T-Mobile will continue to be the only company with a real plan for nationwide 5G.” If T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint is approved “the New T-Mobile will bring 5G to everyone, everywhere,” he said. Verizon, meanwhile, refuses to publish a 5G coverage map, Legere said. “I predict media will use the words ‘AT&T’ and ‘5G’ and ‘BS’ at least a dozen times in the same sentence in 2019,” he said. “AT&T is trying to pull some straight up BS -- showing a '5G’-ish indicator on the phone when it’s on LTE.” AT&T and Verizon didn’t comment.

The Rural Wireless Association said the FCC should investigate T-Mobile’s claims on its 4G LTE coverage as part of the one-time data collection for the Mobility Fund Phase II auction. T-Mobile last week denied it’s a target of an FCC investigation into whether top wireless carriers submitted incorrect coverage maps (see 1812070048). “After RWA members conducted their own drive testing of T-Mobile’s coverage in their respective service areas, RWA determined that T-Mobile’s data submitted to the FCC regarding its claimed coverage of these areas at 5 Mbps or greater download speeds was not accurate or supported,” RWA said in docket 10-90. “Based on evidence available to RWA members it became evident that T- Mobile did not have the requisite backhaul. … It further appears that T-Mobile continued to build out areas that it counted as covered even though this build out occurred after T-Mobile’s January 4 … deadline for submitting actual coverage,” RWA said. T-Mobile didn’t comment.

The FCC Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau sought comment on General Motors' request for partial waiver of minimum functionality requirements for real-time text services. “GM states that it intends to provide an RTT chat application to achieve accessibility for the customer support function” of its autonomous-vehicle ride-hailing service current in development, the bureau said Wednesday. Because its app would be designed to be used only to contact customer support, it shouldn’t have to support minimum functionalities, including RTT-RTT interoperability, transmission and receipt of RTT communications to and from any 911 call center, and simultaneous voice and text communications, GM argues, the bureau said. Comments are due Jan. 25, replies Feb. 11 in docket 15-178.

The FCC Wireless Bureau said it will establish a uniform deadline for oppositions to and the replies to oppositions on a petition for reconsideration of the FCC’s September wireless infrastructure order (see 1809260029). The bureau cites a recon petition filed by New Orleans; Virginia Municipal League; Kentucky League of Cities; Mississippi Municipal League; Pennsylvania Municipal League; Alabama League of Municipalities; Arkansas Municipal League; Nevada League of Cities and Municipalities; Middleburg, Virginia; Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; and the Government Wireless Technology & Communications Association. The date for oppositions will be 15 days after Federal Register publication, the bureau said. Replies will be due 10 days after oppositions, said a Wednesday notice in docket 17-79. The FCC "has manufactured a massive shift of corporate costs from carriers to municipal governments by exaggerating the number of abuses by a limited number of municipalities, while at the same time ignoring abuses by wireless providers," the petition says.

The Association of Global Automakers and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America are jointly seeking a delay in the filing deadlines on a waiver request by the 5G Automotive Association to deploy cellular vehicle-to-everything technology in the upper 20 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band. Comments are due Jan. 11, replies Jan. 28 (see 1812060032), and the auto industry groups are seeking extensions to Jan. 28 for comments, Feb. 12 for replies. They note the initial deadline is during CES in Las Vegas. “CES 2019 heavily features automotive technology, and will involve executive-level participation from stakeholders across the transportation and auto ecosystem as well as support from in-house engineering and technical experts ... precisely the personnel that would be involved in preparing comments on the 5GAA Petition for Waiver,” said the petition in docket 18-357. Meanwhile, RAND officials met with Giulia McHenry, acting chief of the Office of Economics and Analytics and others from OEA on the potential value of the 5.9 GHz band. Rand presented a report, which said unlicensed use of the spectrum could add $59.8 billion to $105.8 billion annually to the GDP.

The 800 MHz transition administrator reported progress on Mexico border retuning, the part that has taken longest to complete. All 127 frequency reconfiguration agreements anticipated for Mexican border licensees have been negotiated and submitted to the TA, said the report posted Friday in docket 02-55: Border licensees “retuned, reflashed, or replaced approximately 5,200 radios (first touches)" in Q3, raising the total complete to approximately 250,000 radios. All licensees in Arizona have retuned. The 800 MHz rebanding has been underway since the FCC approved its landmark 800 MHz rebanding order in 2004, aimed at addressing interference to public safety radios in the band by Nextel, which later merged with Sprint.

Consumer and public interest groups explained objections to T-Mobile buying Sprint in a Friday FCC filing on meeting the staff team reviewing it. It's "a classic horizontal merger in an already ‘highly concentrated’ market,” the groups said in docket 18-197. “It is likely to dramatically reduce wireless market competition and harm consumers, leaving the wireless market with higher prices, less variety in products and services, reduced innovation, and poorer service quality and customer service than would exist absent the merger.” Representatives of Public Knowledge, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Free Press, Common Cause, the Open Markets Institute, Consumer Reports and Writers Guild of America West attended. T-Mobile didn’t comment.

All remaining parts of an FCC order streamlining cellular service rules, OK'd 4-0 in July (see Notebook at the end of 1807120033), take effect Jan. 2, after Federal Register publication scheduled for Wednesday. Other parts took effect in September (see 1808010062), except for one that modified information collection requirements and required Office of Management and Budget OK. The notice says OMB approved, for three years, the information collection requirements associated with the rules. OMB estimated a $19.1 million annual cost to industry to comply.

NTIA sought comment on its push to develop a comprehensive, long-term national spectrum strategy, in a Friday notice in the Federal Register. It follows an October memo from President Donald Trump, directing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to work with others in the administration and with industry to develop a comprehensive national spectrum policy (see 1810250018). “We solicit recommended actions as well as information that can improve NTIA’s understanding more generally in areas including expanding spectrum access, improving spectrum sharing, enhancing spectrum management, utilizing ongoing research and development activities, fostering global competitiveness, protecting U.S. space assets from RF interference, and augmenting the mission capability of Federal entities,” NTIA said. Comments are due Jan. 22 in docket 181130999-8999-01.

Mobile sales of $33.3 billion Nov. 1 until Wednesday lived up to industry predictions. Mobile represented half the number of online transactions, and it's the first holiday season where more than half of shopping visits (58.3 percent) came from mobile devices of any sort, Adobe Analytics reported Thursday. A record $110.6 billion was spent online in the period, up 17.8 percent over the 2017 stretch, the tech tracker said. It forecast $124.1 billion in holiday online spending through Dec. 31.