Uses for 5G range from enhanced mobile broadband and IoT to connected vehicles and low-latency applications like tactile interaction and automated factories, 5G Americas wrote Wednesday. Its report also outlines technical requirements and maps them to 5G capabilities.

Verizon will launch 5G-enabled wireless residential broadband services in three to five U.S. markets next year, it said Wednesday. The first will be Sacramento, in the second half. The carrier said other markets would be announced later. It said it successfully tested 5G residential applications in 11 markets this year, and 5G residential broadband services are a potential 30 million-household market. Chief Technology Officer Hans Vestberg said the initial launches "will provide a strong framework for accelerating 5G’s future deployment on the global standards.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau signed off on the Verizon Wireless acquisition of spectrum licenses from XO Holdings’ Nextlink Wireless, saying in an order Wednesday that likelihood of competitive harms is small. It said VW's post-transaction holdings in the 28 GHz and 39 GHz bands don't raise competitive concerns given the state of the market, and the deal carries some public interest benefits in expeditious use of the spectrum for 5G. Verizon hopes to use the spectrum controlled by Nextlink as part of its network local multipoint distribution service (see 1706050042).

Carriers can benefit from expanding machine-to-machine communications, a research firm reported Tuesday. ABI Research forecasts the U.S. cellular M2M market will grow beyond 300 million connections by 2022, from 82.7 million at the end of 2016, amid more connected cars. Last year, AT&T had 30.3 million connections, Verizon 23.9 million and Sprint and T-Mobile about 28 million between them. "Competitive announcements from Comcast supporting long range wireless is a first for a mainstream provider in the U.S. market and a huge distraction for the top four U.S. mobile operators," ABI said.

Ericsson is forecasting a billion 5G subscriptions globally for enhanced mobile broadband by 2023, the company reported Tuesday. Having first been deployed in dense urban areas, 5G will cover more than 20 percent of the world’s population by the end of 2023, it said. The first commercial networks based on 5G New Radio are expected to go live in 2019, with “major deployments” from 2020 on, it said. Ericsson foresees the earliest 5G deployments taking place in the U.S., South Korea, Japan and China, it said. Also citing its report, the equipment maker said "mobile data traffic is expected to surge by eight times ... reaching 110 Exabytes per month by 2023. This corresponds to 5.5 million years of HD video streaming. All regions maintain mobile data traffic growth, with North America showing the highest average usage per smartphone, exceeding 7GB per month by the end of 2017." Fourth-generation LTE "momentum continues" and is expected to reach 5.5 billion subscribers by the end of 2023, out of 9.1 million total mobile subscriptions, it added. Also Tuesday, an FCC member spoke of the importance of 5G (see 1711280031).

Holiday sales aren't disappointing, particularly on mobile, with U.S. Cyber Monday sales of $6.59 billion setting a record as expected (see 1711270057) as the highest volume online shopping day, Adobe said. Mobile shopping spend exceeded $2 billion for the first time Monday, Adobe said, with smartphones having become the “de facto device” for mobile shopping, with 37 percent of retail visits and 21 percent of revenue, Adobe said. The Nov. 1-27 holiday period brought in $50 billion in online shopping revenue, also up 17 percent like Cyber Monday sales. Conversion rates on smartphones were 3.5 percent, up 10 percent from last year. The National Retail Federation reported 63 percent of smartphone owners used mobile devices to make holiday decisions, and 29 percent used their phones for purchases.

FirstNet isn’t exempt from the Freedom of Information Act, said VTDigger at the U.S. District Court for Vermont in case 5:17-cv-192. The local news organization sued the Department of Commerce last month for refusing to process its FOIA requests on FirstNet. This month, the Commerce Department asked to dismiss the suit. Plaintiffs rejected the department’s arguments, in a response (in Pacer) filed Sunday. “This case is about what it takes to shield government activity from the prying eyes of the public,” the news organization said. “As opposed to most FOIA cases where an agency invokes specific narrowly tailored exemptions to withhold certain information from a requester, DOC has, through a series of formal and informal policies, instead taken the position that it does not have to be bothered with such niceties and can instead simply refuse to even search for responsive records, let alone process them for release, whenever they have to do with FirstNet.” In saying FirstNet is exempt from FOIA, DOC cites a line from the statute establishing FirstNet that refers to a different law, the Administrative Procedure Act, the nonprofit said. The department describes FirstNet as an independent agency within NTIA, but “FirstNet still remains curiously beholden to various DOC components,” the organization said. “DOC seeks to hide all evidence of FirstNet’s activities, ostensibly because it involves confidential or sensitive information,” it said. “It does not cite to any exemptions to protect this information.” In March, FirstNet declined our FOIA request seeking release of contract documents for the $6.5 billion public safety project (see 1703290047).

Consumer groups don't oppose streamlining FCC reporting requirements for hearing aid-compatible (HAC) mobile handsets but oppose eliminating them, said Hearing Loss Association of America and others in reply comments this week in docket 17-228. Don’t “throw out the baby with the bathwater,” they said. “Even if Form 655 is burdensome to file, as industry contends, there is no reason to abandon the procedure that the ATIS HAC Incubator worked hard to develop, that all parties agreed to, and the Commission adopted.” CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association urged the FCC to eliminate 655 reporting requirements for all service providers. The wireless groups said consumers have resources to find the right device and understand the HAC-rating system, “making the Commission’s reporting requirement unnecessary for either educational or compliance purposes.”

The FCC should begin tracking growth of IoT devices that are high bandwidth or rely on unlicensed spectrum, GAO suggested. A report released Tuesday, based on interviews with officials from the FCC, NTIA and private sector stakeholders, found availability of spectrum and managing interference are the primary spectrum IoT market challenges. Any rapid increase in the use of high-bandwidth IoT devices could echo the same rapid overwhelming of networks that occurred during the rise of smartphones, GAO said. Managing interference is becoming more difficult as the number of deployed IoT devices grows, especially on unlicensed bands, it said. The FCC will ask its Technical Advisory Council (TAC) to periodically review and report on IoT's growth but doesn't believe the recommendations on more active IoT-related tracking are necessary, said Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp and Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale in a letter responding to the findings. “Since most of the projected IoT growth is expected to occur in unlicensed bands that are not protected from interference, we continue to believe that FCC should place a greater focus on tracking IoT devices in these bands,” GAO said. “The TAC may also be well positioned to help FCC track unlicensed IoT devices.” The report noted France, Germany, the Netherlands and South Korea took steps “similar” to those by the U.S. to prepare for the rise of IoT but found that only one -- South Korea -- is actively monitoring possible spectrum congestion.

Comments on the FCC's proposal to extend the priority access licenses (PAL) in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band duration from three years to 10 would be due Dec. 28, with replies due 30 days after, said an NPRM to be published in Tuesday's Federal Register. The agency also suggests eliminating the requirement PALs automatically terminate at a license term's end. It seeks comment on alternative approaches to license term lengths, such as three years for some PALs and longer for others and on whether to increase the licensed area size to partial economic areas.