Nokia supported launch of a proposed rulemaking authorizing 5/5 MHz broadband deployments in the 900 MHz band (see 2405210041). “With the necessary interference mitigation and remediation protections in place, expanding this band has the potential to support a variety of use cases including secure wireless broadband networks for utilities, business enterprise entities and other critical infrastructure,” a filing posted Wednesday in docket 24-99 said. “Utilities and private enterprises must have access to the spectrum they require for current and future use cases,” Nokia said.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau closed all remaining dockets for filings on review and approval of regional plans or plan amendments for spectrum in the 800 MHz National Public Safety Planning Advisory Committee band, except for consolidated docket 23-237. The agency created that docket last year but didn’t close all the other dockets at the time (see 2307210053). “Some of these individual dockets have previously been closed and we now close the remaining individual dockets,” the bureau said in a notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest.
Confusion was evident over implementation of FCC rules on Wi-Fi hot spots through the E-rate program during a Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar on Wednesday. Technical rules for funding allocations included formulas that seemed better suited for a pre-algebra course than a webinar about hot spot grant applications. Speakers mentioned political uncertainty concerning the future of the program in the courts (see 2407180024). A question-and-answer sequence reflected viewers' confusion about the implications for local schools and libraries; most were seeking clarification on the FCC’s complex record-keeping requirements and those that prevent warehousing.
The Wi-Fi Alliance told the FCC that proposed modifications of a waiver request to market three investigative and surveillance devices operating at higher power levels than allowed in the 5 GHz band don’t adequately address interference concerns. Axon proposed in July that its devices operate primarily using channels at the upper and lower edges of the U-NII-3 band, “avoiding operations in the more congested center of the band.” The compromise Axon suggests won't “cure the fundamental problem with its Request -- that Axon’s devices will block Wi-Fi access to U-NII-3 spectrum that is critical to meet Americans’ connectivity requirements,” the Alliance said in a filing not yet posted in docket 24-40: “As the record demonstrates, unlike Wi-Fi, Axon’s devices would not implement contention-based protocols intended to ensure equitable access among unlicensed devices to the U-NII-3 band. Axon’s ‘always-on’ protocol makes the failure to ‘listen-before-talk’ even worse.”
Carriers are embracing open radio access networks as they “introduce” more virtualization, intelligence and “ultimately automation” into their networks, Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro Group vice president-RAN market research, said during a Fierce Network webinar Tuesday on ORAN indoors. Del Oro recently projected that global RAN revenue will decline at a 2% compound average growth rate through 2028 (see 2407260041). “Within that there are pockets of the RAN market that are growing,” including ORAN, small cells, millimeter-wave deployments and fixed wireless access, Pongratz said. A big challenge for AMB Sports and Entertainment, which manages Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, is keeping up with fan demand, Chief Information Officer Kevin Pope said. “We actually have to track a different demand line when you think of events like the SEC [college football] Championship, a Taylor Swift concert, a FIFA World Cup game, the Super Bowl,” he said. The demands are higher than for average events, he added. Connectivity is “something we take seriously, but it’s a moving target.” Customers don’t care about which technology is used, “they just want to have a good experience" but "we need to have all these tools in our toolbox.” If people are reading email, “that’s one thing,” Pope said, but if thousands of fans are trying to stream high-resolution video at the same time that requires a different set of tools. His company uses a distributed antenna system and Wi-Fi but also millimeter-wave spectrum in areas where it expects the highest bandwidth demands. At the biggest events, during the halftime of a football game or a set break at a concert, the demand peaks “are just staggering.” You also have to deal with customer preferences, Pope said: Some customers have limited data plans so they want to use Wi-Fi, while others may not trust Wi-Fi. The initial focus with any new generation of wireless is on outdoor, macro coverage, said Upendra Pingle, CommScope senior vice president-intelligent cellular networks. When that’s done, the focus moves to in-building coverage, starting with large public venues, followed by more general network densification, he said. “This cycle repeats every decade … and we’ll see the same thing on 6G.” Pingle said carriers are focusing more on high-band deployments “because that’s where high bandwidth is available” for “massive, data-hungry use cases.” With millimeter-wave, the signals don’t penetrate buildings very well and “a dedicated in-building solution becomes more and more important.” With that comes the need for “an open, virtualized architecture to deploy in-building cellular to cover all the use cases,” he said. As venues consider millimeter-wave spectrum, it has to make sense for them financially given the costs. “The use case has to be balanced with the business case.” High-band will have its place, “but it's going to have to be a specific application dealing with a specific use case,” Pingle said.
Generative AI (GenAI) smartphone shipments are expected to grow 363.6% year over year in 2024 to 234.2 million handsets, or 19% of the smartphone market, IDC said Tuesday. Growth is expected to continue at a compound annual rate of 78.4% through 2028. "GenAI smartphones are inevitable and look to be the next big thing the industry has to offer consumers," said Anthony Scarsella, IDC research director-mobile phones. “Despite the challenges of elongated refresh cycles and macroeconomic uncertainties, GenAI capabilities on the smartphone will drive upgrades and represent a significant opportunity for both vendors and application developers alike,” IDC said.
Auto Innovators urged the FCC to act soon on a proposed order on cellular vehicle-to-everything use of the 5.9 GHz band that is in front of the commissioners (see 2407170042). The group represents the auto industry. Its representatives met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr. Its representatives “also encouraged the Commission to work with the automotive industry to identify additional spectrum to both support new C-V2X use cases and to ensure that there is adequate spectrum for next-generation V2X technologies, such as 5G-V2X,” a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-138 said.
India, the U.S. and Southeast Asia lead the world in stand-alone (SA) 5G deployments, while Chinese operators and India’s Jio lead in active 5G SA users, Ookla said in a new report. Europe lags, “with operators still hesitant due to the relatively low [return] on existing 5G investments and unclear business cases for 5G SA.” The United Arab Emirates and South Korea lead in performance -- with download speeds reaching 879.89 Mbps and 729.89 Mbps, respectively, Ookla said. Ookla recorded just 11 new 5G SA deployments in nine countries in 2023 but said growth is expected to accelerate this year. “5G SA uses a dedicated 5G core network, unlocking the full capabilities of 5G with better speed, latency, support for large numbers of devices, and more agile service creation,” Ookla said: It also allows new features including network slicing, but comes with increased infrastructure complexity, higher costs and requires more staff training.
A March FCC order creating a voluntary cyber-trust mark program is effective Aug. 29, a notice for Tuesday’s Federal Register said. Questions remain about when the program will launch, with the FCC yet to finalize some aspects of the rules (see 2405090051). The cyber mark label will appear on consumer IoT products with an accompanying QR code (see 2403140034).
Handset repair advocates told the FCC that a 60-day period in which handsets can’t be unlocked is too long. Commissioners approved an NPRM 5-0 this month seeking comment on unlocking rules (see 2407180037). “For the sake of full hardware freedom, we call on the Commission to eliminate hardware-based carrier lock-in periods entirely and require carriers to unlock handsets upon sale,” a filing posted Monday in docket 24-186 from iFixit, U.S. PIRG, The Repair Association, the Secure and Resilient Future Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Waveform. A 60-day period, as the FCC proposed, is “customer-hostile, props up predatory business models, and weakens the secondary market for smartphones,” the groups said.