T-Mobile US said Wednesday its board authorized a stock repurchase program of up to $1.5 billion, through Dec. 31, 2018. “Since launching Un-carrier, T-Mobile has delivered unmatched growth and continues to take share in a rapidly changing and competitive wireless industry,” said CEO John Legere.

LTE-unlicensed and its license assisted access cousin are likely to play an increasingly important role for carriers as they move toward 5G, IHS Markit reported Wednesday. “In the US, AT&T, T-Mobile US and Verizon have already jumped on the LTE‑U/LAA bandwagon; it’s an easy software upgrade to their small cells as long as devices are available,” the researcher said. “The world will follow with LAA rollouts in Asia (SK Telecom) and Europe (Vodafone).” The need carriers have for the new technologies is clear, the firm said: “The unabated need for capacity means that unlicensed spectrum must be harnessed to support LTE services, and later, 5G.”

Given 5G's variety of uses, "environments and requirements, no single connectivity technology or standard can adequately serve" all, so development of multiple 3rd Generation Partnership Project cellular technology standards can help, 5G Americas President Chris Pearson said Wednesday. "3GPP is keeping up with the growth of IoT to address the market demand.” The group's paper said 5G will support growing markets for wearables, healthcare, connected vehicles and other parts of the IoT and listed various 3GPP specs.

Wireless ISP Association officials met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and staff on 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service spectrum. WISPA hopes the FCC will stick with small, census tract-sized priority access licenses (PALs) in the band. If the FCC adopts larger license sizes, and lengthy license terms, as proposed in an October NPRM (see 1710240050), only “a few large mobile wireless carriers” would bid for PALs, WISPA said. “Modifying the PAL rules in the manner proposed … would only benefit the mobile-carrier use case to the detriment of all other use cases.” Federated Wireless also reported on a series of meetings at the FCC on the CBRS band and the importance of quick FCC action on certifying spectrum access system administrators and environmental sensing capability operators in the band and completing the NPRM. CEO Iyad Tarazi and others from the company met with Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel and aides to the other commissioners. “Federated alone has conducted 30+ technical trials, and has a number of important field trials underway with Charter, Verizon, American Tower, and ARRIS/Ruckus Wireless,” said a filing in docket 17-258. “Federated supports the goal of concluding the NPRM proceeding by the end of Q1 2018. Federated emphasized the importance of resolving remaining CBRS issues in a manner that preserves access to CBRS spectrum for as many users -- and use cases -- as possible.”

Representatives of CTIA and the Wireless Infrastructure Association held a series of meetings at the FCC on twilight towers, with aides to the five commissioners and the Wireless Bureau. A draft item on the towers is set for a vote at commissioners' Dec. 14 meeting (see 1711220026). “The Associations support this item, which recognizes the unique regulatory conditions that fostered the creation of Twilight Towers, the lack of evidence of adverse effects from Twilight Towers, and the public interest benefits of making these facilities available for collocation to support expanded 4G LTE coverage, next-generation 5G networks, and FirstNet,” said a joint filing in docket 17-79. But the groups asked for a few clarifications. For example, the FCC should make clear that “in instances where a collocation on a Twilight Tower must undergo the Section 106 process because it does not meet the stated exclusions, such review would be for the collocation and not the underlying tower itself,” the filing said. Verizon also met with the commissioner aides to support the draft, saying: “Taking action to exclude historic preservation reviews for new collocations on towers that have been standing almost 13 years will obviate the need to build new towers.”

T-Mobile and Ericsson said they became the first to demo speeds exceeding 1 Gbps using 12-layer licensed assisted access technology. The LAA milestone was reached at T-Mobile’s lab using Ericsson technology and test gear from Cobham Wireless, Ericsson said in a Tuesday news release. “Breaking the 1 Gbps-mark means that commercial gigabit speeds are not far from reality for many broadband users, with our LAA and MIMO technologies as key enablers,” said Fredrik Jejdling, Ericsson head of networks, referring to multiple-input and multiple-output. LAA is technology that will let carriers offer service in unlicensed spectrum.

The demise of a T-Mobile/Sprint deal sent stocks of major tower companies to record highs, but they remain a good investment, MoffettNathanson’s Nick Del Deo wrote investors Tuesday. He warned of possible trouble ahead. “The stocks are trading at their all-time highs and everybody and their mother knows that 2018 is shaping up to be a healthy year for domestic leasing,” he wrote. “Qualitatively, that doesn’t sound like a terribly attractive setup and would suggest downgrading the names to Neutral would be appropriate. In fact, that was our going-in bias when we started authoring this report. However, after running through the numbers and updating our models, we still don’t think it’s time.”

Crown Castle representatives told FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr the wireless industry still faces “various barriers” to deploying next-generation broadband networks. “They focused on issues relating to ensuring timely access to the right-of-way for broadband facilities, dealing with unreasonable fees, reforming historic and environmental review, and addressing legal issues such as the proper standard for prohibition and how to implement deemed grant procedures,” said a Monday filing in docket 17-79.

The FCC is starting to see pushback on a draft proposal by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to change rules for twilight towers. The Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office raised questions about the proposal, in a letter saying the towers should remain subject to review under the National Historic Preservation Act. The item is set for a vote at commissioners' Dec. 14 meeting (see 1711220026), though major pushback wasn't seen (see 1712010021). If the purpose is to collocate on the towers, the FCC should instead amend rules to allow the towers to be used, but after historic review, the office said in docket 17-79. The Georgia State Historic Preservation Office also raised questions. The agency is on the right track in its draft public notice and draft program comment on twilight towers, T-Mobile wrote commissioners. The draft is “an excellent step towards finally resolving an issue that has been stifling deployment for far too long,” the carrier said. “Thousands of towers have been stuck in regulatory limbo for more than a decade, but thankfully the FCC’s proposed action here would create a path to opening these towers for additional wireless deployments.” T-Mobile described twilight towers as "towers built between March 16, 2001 and March 7, 2005 that may have been constructed without completing the Section 106 review process."

AT&T is working with Amazon Web Services to develop an order button that runs on AT&T’s LTE-M cellular network and is set for Q1 availability, said the carrier last week. It would work even in areas lacking Wi-Fi.