AT&T said it will be first to launch mobile 5G over a standards-based network Friday: “While the initial launch starts small and will be limited, as the 5G ecosystem evolves customers will see enhancements in coverage, speeds and devices.” Launches are in parts of Atlanta; Charlotte; Dallas; Houston; Indianapolis; Jacksonville, Florida; Louisville; Oklahoma City; New Orleans; Raleigh, North Carolina; and San Antonio and Waco, Texas. In the first half of 2019, it starts in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. The first adopters will likely be “growing businesses,” Mo Katibeh, chief marketing officer-AT&T Business, said Tuesday, "the starting point" for an unprecedented "technology revolution.” Verizon was the first to launch fixed 5G in October (see 1810010028).

Rural Wireless Association General Counsel Carri Bennet defended RWA's dispute with T-Mobile on the carrier’s Mobility Fund Phase II data submissions to the FCC (see 1812170019). "In ex parte meetings with the FCC, RWA’s members reported that T-Mobile’s MF II maps were overstated,” Bennet emailed. “Some of RWA’s members have challenged these maps and the data submitted in the [Universal Service Administrative Co.] portal support these challenges. In addition, RWA members observed during drive testing that T-Mobile’s coverage increased as time went on and testing continued. This increased coverage occurred after the Jan. 4, 2018, deadline for filing the maps. The discrepancy appears to be a timing factor. Was the coverage there on or before Jan. 4?"

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. cleared T-Mobile’s buy of Sprint, as expected (see 1812170019), the buyer said Monday. Meanwhile, Team Telecom, made up of DOJ, the Department of Homeland Security and DOD, officially withdrew its request to defer action on the deal, filing in FCC docket 18-197. “The Agencies have reviewed the information provided by the applicants and analyzed the measures undertaken by the applicants to address potential national security, law enforcement, and public safety issues,” the filing said. "We are a step closer to offering customers a supercharged disruptor that will create jobs from day one and deliver a real alternative to fixed broadband while delivering the first broad and deep nationwide 5G network for the United States,” said T-Mobile CEO John Legere.

AT&T said it's using Tillman Infrastructure, not traditionally one of the big tower players, to build “hundreds of new macro cell towers for lease to AT&T.” Use of Tillman helped AT&T lower costs, the carrier said in a Monday news release. “We’re committed to working with vendors who offer a sustainable cost model while also delivering best in class cycle times and tower construction,” said Susan Johnson, executive vice president-global connections and supply chain.

Accurate results of drive tests checking whether areas are eligible for Mobility Fund Phase II support is difficult, especially in remote tribal lands and nearby areas, Smith Bagley told an aide to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. The carrier said it spent more than $250,000 on drive testing, “but has only covered a small fraction of the thousands of individual one square kilometer grid cells that it believes should be tested,” in a filing posted Monday in docket 10-90.

Sprint Spectrum asked the FCC to reverse Universal Service Administrative Co. findings in an audit of the company's 2016 Form 499-A filing used to calculate USF contributions. Sprint challenged USAC's use of a "100 percent telecommunications safe harbor method" to penalize the carrier's "alleged failure to retain documentation" on a revenue allocation. "Despite Sprint’s presentation of evidence supporting the reasonableness of its allocation of bundled revenue, USAC improperly concluded that Sprint’s reported allocation was unreasonable," said the company's request for Wireline Bureau review posted Monday in docket 06-122. "It compounded that error by treating all revenue from the relevant bundle as assessable rather than applying other, more reasonable approaches." Sprint also challenged USAC "retroactively" finding "a carrier’s traffic studies are insufficient to justify the carrier’s reported revenues where the carrier had consistently filed and relied upon such traffic studies without objection from USAC." The FCC and USAC didn't comment.

The American Petroleum Institute supported a waiver request by the Wireless ISP Association and the Utilities Technology Council on a pending 3.5 GHz requirement. WISPA and UTC asked the FCC to waive requirements that 3650-3700 MHz licensees complete the transition to Part 96 citizens broadband radio service rules by April 17, 2020 (see 1812040002). Waiver would benefit the oil and gas industry and “given the nature of CBRS and its relation to the smaller 3650-3700 MHz band … would not encumber Priority Access,” API filed, posted Monday in docket 18-353.

The iPhone X, XS and XS Max smartphones lack “advertised” screen resolutions and screen sizes in violation of consumer protection laws in all states and the District of Columbia, alleged a complaint (in Pacer) Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose that seeks class-action status. Apple's "nominal screen pixel resolution counts misleadingly count false pixels as if they were true pixels," said two consumers. The screens have rounded-off corners with "notches" at the top containing no pixels, yet Apple "calculates the screen size" by including "non-screen areas such as the corners and the cut-out notch," they alleged. California's Christian Sponchiado paid $1,149 for his X at an AT&T store in San Francisco, and co-plaintiff Brooklynite Courtney Davis bought her XS Max for $1,099 from Apple online. The company didn’t comment.

Comments on expanding 6 GHz band unlicensed use are due Feb. 15, replies March 18, says an FCC notice for Monday's Federal Register on dockets including 18-295. At their Oct. 23 meeting, commissioners approved the NPRM (see 1810230038).

FCC Auction 101 for 5G, IoT and other advanced services will take a holiday break. The first auction of upper microwave flexible use service licenses (see 1812130071), in the 28 GHz band, said in a Thursday update that if it's still going Dec. 21 and remains in four rounds per day, bidding ends that day at 1 p.m. EST and resumes 10 a.m. Jan. 3: "We will post an announcement providing the exact time bidding will be suspended on December 21 closer to that date." The auction bidder line also closes for the holidays. Friday, provisionally winning bids were little changed from the previous day, at $687.7 million. There are 40 qualified bidders and PWBs for 2,939 spectrum blocks, with another 133 held aside.