Global revenue in the enterprise segment of the wireless local area network market grew 21.8% in Q4 to $2.3 billion and was up 20.4% for full-year 2021 to $7.6 billion, fueled by growing Wi-Fi 6 adoption, reported IDC Wednesday. The consumer segment of the WLAN market declined 10.1% year over year in Q4 and was down 2.5% for the full year, it said. The decline in the “consumer-class” WLAN market was largely due to difficult comparisons with the strong results in 2020, when consumers upgraded their wireless connectivity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said IDC. Compared with full-year 2019 before the pandemic, the consumer market grew 12.6% in 2021, “indicating that the market's fundamentals remain strong,” it said. Wi-Fi 6 products continued to grow in the consumer market, generating 28.2% of the segment's revenue and 13.1% of its unit shipments, it said.

Nearly 50% of T-Mobile’s network traffic is now 5G, compared with 10% a year ago, President-Technology Neville Ray, told a Morgan Stanley conference Wednesday. The company’s 5G offering uses its 600 MHz and 2.5 GHz holdings. “As we go through the balance of this year, the intent is to have pretty much all of that [2.5 GHz] spectrum dedicated to the 5G game,” he said: “We've made great progress on that as we move through '20 and '21.” Ray said more than 40% of postpaid smartphones are 5G capable. About 80% of Sprint cellsites will be decommissioned by the middle of 2022, he said. “There are tens of thousands of sites that we're in a position” to take offline, he said. “We have to upgrade the sites that we’re keeping,” Ray said: “That work is already progressing well. Over the two years, we’ve spent a lot of time really understanding information and data about Sprint customer usage on the network we didn’t have access to previously. Now we’re able to, on a site-by-site basis, measure and quantify customer impact.” T-Mobile said Thursday it’s making its 5G Home Internet service available through 7,000 Metro by T-Mobile stores across the U.S. “This move makes the Un-carrier first to launch a fixed wireless home broadband service for prepaid customers, with no credit check and no annual contracts,” the carrier said. The service costs $50 monthly with "a one-time gateway purchase."

Atrium Hospitality agreed to pay a $35,000 fine and implement a compliance plan after acquiring 25 wireless licenses without FCC approval. In 2018, the Alpharetta, Georgia-based company acquired hotels from JQH Entities, which had filed for bankruptcy, as part of a legal settlement, which included 25 private land mobile licenses. In 2019, Atrium filed several wireless license assignment applications, notifying the Wireless Bureau “that it had acquired wireless licenses without the necessary prior Commission approval,” said a Thursday order by the Enforcement Bureau. The Enforcement Bureau said the consent decree agreed to by Atrium ends an FCC investigation.

The FCC adopted the technical requirements for the mobile challenge, verification and crowdsourcing processes for collecting broadband data, as required by the Broadband Data Act. The order was handed down Wednesday by the chiefs of the Wireless Bureau, Office of Economics and Analytics and Office of Engineering and Technology. Small carriers and others sought changes to proposed rules in comments last fall (see 2109290045). The order adopts the “parameters and metrics … that must be collected both for on-the-ground test data to support challenge submissions, rebuttals to cognizable challenges, and responses to verification requests, and for infrastructure information to support challenge rebuttals and responses to verification requests.” Among the policy cuts, the FCC clarifies that “minimum and maximum test length parameters will apply individually to download speed, upload speed, and round-trip latency measurements, and will not include ramp up time.” The agency said it disagreed with arguments by Competitive Carriers Association, Public Knowledge/New America and others that “imposing a maximum test limit places an arbitrary or inferior limitation on testing.” The requirements “balance representative measurement over a stable Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection, on the one hand, versus data usage considerations, on the other hand -- especially for consumers who may have limited data plans,” the agency said. The FCC said it understands “concerns about excessive data and burdens on consumers and governments and other third-party challengers to assure that their data aligns to these standards.” But the agency said “such parameters and metrics are necessary to provide the Commission with complete and reliable challenge data that accurately reflect on-the-ground conditions in the challenged area and provide the additional context necessary to efficiently and fully adjudicate challenges and thereby assure that more accurate and reliable coverage maps are made available.” The order said the FCC’s speed test app is “a reliable and efficient method for entities to use in submitting crowdsourced mobile coverage data to the Commission.” On the issue of hexagonal cell sizes for testing, “CTIA, T-Mobile, and AT&T urged the use of smaller resolution 10 hexagons instead of resolution 8, contending that hexagons at resolution 10 better match the 100-meter resolution providers must use when submitting their coverage map,” the order says: The Rural Wireless Association and Vermont regulators “recommend allowing challenges to resolution 6 and 7 hexagons in rural areas, which RWA notes are often difficult to test because of a lack of accessible roads.” The FCC found middle ground, saying resolution 8 “strikes an appropriate balance as the smallest resolution for a cognizable challenge.” The order notes some wanted more clarity on how the FCC will use crowdsourced data. The commission will evaluate data first through an automated process “to identify potential areas that warrant further review and evaluation by Commission staff,” the order said: Problems areas “would be subject to further review and evaluation by Commission staff of available evidence, such as speed test data, infrastructure data, crowdsourced and other third-party data.”

The FCC must be the decider in spectrum disputes, which was Congress’ intention when it approved the Communication Act in 1934, said Public Knowledge and the Digital Progress Institute in a paper released Wednesday. The paper notes the Commerce Department initially had authority to assign commercial spectrum licenses, but that duty was assigned to the Federal Radio Commission in 1927, and later the FCC. “Congress realized early on that giving an executive agency -- like the Department of Commerce -- the authority to regulate spectrum would create a massive conflict of interest in resolving spectrum disputes,” the paper said: “The reason is that the Executive Branch is a significant user of spectrum, and it would be difficult for a cabinet Secretary to be impartial when deciding either to grant a license to a commercial carrier or another executive agency.” Congress gave the FCC “a lot of tools to manage spectrum, as compared to the NTIA or any other agency,” the groups said: “Congress gave almost exclusive jurisdiction to the FCC to determine how commercial operators can use spectrum. … Congress had many opportunities to provide the NTIA with more spectrum allocation authority, but it did not.” The paper follows several disputes between the FCC and other agencies, most recently with the FAA over use of the C band for 5G.

The FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureaus reminded incumbent fixed microwave operators in the 6 GHz band they must maintain accurate information in the FCC’s Universal Licensing System. Automated frequency coordination systems that will be used to promote sharing with unlicensed users depend on an accurate database, the bureaus said Tuesday. “Licensees should confirm that their ULS records reflect actual operations to ensure that incumbent fixed microwave licensees are protected from harmful interference from both new unlicensed 6 GHz standard power access points and new fixed microwave links that may access the band,” they said.

The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council will meet virtually March 30, starting at 1 p.m. EDT, said a Federal Register notice for Wednesday. It's the current CSRIC’s third meeting. The focus this term is 5G security (see 2104150056).

The industry expects between 700 million and 750 million 5G phones to be produced this year, Qorvo CEO Bob Bruggeworth told a Raymond James investment conference Monday. The company supplies RF modules and other components for 5G handsets from Samsung and other OEMs. 5G is under 50% share of the smartphone market, “so we’ve still got a long way to go” before reaching 5G’s potential, he said. Qorvo sees an increase of about $5 to $7 in content per device whenever an OEM brings out a 5G phone, he said.

Ericsson petitioned the FCC for a waiver to manufacture and market multiband radios that wireless providers can use on 3.45 and 3.7 GHz bands. “The multiband radio will serve the public interest by allowing Ericsson to introduce an innovative radio design, including more flexibility to operate in mid-band frequencies, with smaller, more energy-efficient, and more economical base stations, and with no adverse effects on nearby band operations,” said a filing posted Monday at the FCC: “With this radio, wireless providers that hold licenses in both bands will be able to deploy … in a cost- and energy-efficient manner.” The waiver would allow 3.45 GHz out-of-band emission levels at 3.7-4.0 GHz “at the 3.7 GHz Service OOBE levels,” Ericsson said.

CableLabs said the Commerce Department selected it as the host lab for the NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) 5G Challenge. ITS “will leverage CableLabs’ state-of-the-art lab deployment of fully virtualized 5G networks, including multiple cores, multiple radio access network and new network emulation equipment,” said a news release last week: “CableLabs is providing the standalone 5G network with the essential engineering capability to integrate multiple vendors simultaneously while testing and measuring technical performance metrics -- enabling innovators to compete in testing and validation on site.”