Weekly News: With Wi-Fi 6E, ‘Everything will work much better, much faster’

1. With Wi-Fi 6E, ‘Everything will work much better, much faster’

2. AT&T: Nationwide 5G coming in second quarter

3. FCC Authorizes Full Commercial Deployment in 3.5 GHz Band

4. Verizon CEO defends mmWave strategy for 5G

5. NTIA cites progress in 3450-3550 MHz band for sharing

6. There's No Wireless Without Wires, No 5G Without Fiber

With Wi-Fi 6E, ‘Everything will work much better, much faster’

Wi-Fi 6E refers to extending Wi-Fi 6 into the 6 GHz band

Wi-Fi 6 trials, performed by companies like Cisco, Boingo and the Wireless Broadband Alliance, demonstrated that, even when used in challenging environments that demand a ton of connected devices—crowded sporting events, highly-trafficked airports and large industrial parks—Wi-Fi 6 succeeded in providing faster speeds, improved security and more reliable connectivity.

And right on the heels of the transition to Wi-Fi 6, comes the next big thing in wireless technology: Wi-Fi 6E. While Wi-Fi 6, or 802.11ax, offers faster speeds and improved capacity thanks to features like OFDMA and multi-user MIMO, Wi-Fi 6E refers to the ability for Wi-Fi to leverage the 6 GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi operation, and according to Extreme Networks’ CTO Eric Broockman, it’s going to be a big deal.

“Wi-Fi 6E will be extremely significant,” Broockman told RCR Wireless News. He explained that, at this point, the natural reaction of most consumers is that 6E is just another buzzword and won’t truly offer noticeable results. “But the reality is that Wi-Fi 6E is the real deal,” he countered, “and it will have a significant impact on both enterprises and consumers.”

According to him, Wi-Fi 6E is akin to driving an electric supercar on a brand new, traffic free, multi-lane “super-highway.

“Everything will just work much better, and much faster,” he stated.

Broockman offered a more detailed look at the highway analogy: “Today, Wi-Fi is like a three-lane highway that has large trucks limited to 55mph, a clog of old model-Ts that can’t go over 35mph, electric bicycles limited to 15mph, and a newer wave of high-speed electric vehicles that can go up to 120mph.”

AT&T: Nationwide 5G coming in second quarter

AT&T says FirstNet coverage is more than 75% complete

AT&T touted its progress on meeting various financial objectives which it had laid out for itself in 2019, but 2020 may be trickier still to navigate: the launch of a new streaming service in which it has heavily invested and plans to tie deeply to its 5G network roll-out, along with marketing efforts to boost both that streaming service and 5G device upgrades.

Investors sent the company’s stock down more than 3% in midday trading. AT&T continued to shed DirecTV satellite subscribers during the most recent quarter, while its all-important wireless segment had a strong quarter.

The carrier saw its wireless service revenues grow at 1.9% from 2018 to 2019, and improve 1.8% from the fourth quarter of 2018 to the fourth quarter of 2019. AT&T reported 229,000 postpaid phone net additions for the fourth quarter. For the full year of 2019, it added 483,000 postpaid and 506,000 prepaid phone subscriptions.

AT&T reported $19.6 billion in capital expenditures during 2019, and said that its build-out of the FirstNet network is more than 75% complete. It expects FirstNet to be 80% complete by mid-2020, and that it will receive a $1 billion reimbursement from the FirstNet Authority in the second half of this year. Capital expenditures for 2020 are pegged at about $20 billion.

AT&T had consolidated revenues of $181.2 billion. For the fourth quarter, revenues were $46.8 billion versus $48.0 billion in the year-ago quarter; AT&T said they would have been about the same if not for its heavy investment in its upcoming HBO Max streaming service, and much of that investment was in content licensing. The carrier has also been working on lowering its debt levels, and said that it reduced its net debt by $20.3 billion over the course of last year.

Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO, said that the company “delivered what we promised in 2019 and we begin this year with strong momentum in wireless.”

FCC Authorizes Full Commercial Deployment in 3.5 GHz Band

FCC AUTHORIZES FULL COMMERCIAL DEPLOYMENT IN 3.5 GHZ BAND, ADVANCING AMERICAN 5G LEADERSHIP.

WASHINGTON, January 27, 2020—Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai today announced that the agency has certified four Spectrum Access System (SAS) Administrators, paving the way for full commercial operations in the 3.5 GHz band. Last year, the FCC approved these SAS Administrators for initial commercial deployments. Today’s action allows for full commercial use of this critical mid-band spectrum for broadband
connectivity and 5G.

“The FCC has made it a priority to free up mid-band spectrum for advanced wireless services like 5G. And today, I’m pleased to announce the latest step to achieve that priority: the approval of four systems that will enable the 3.5 GHz band to be put to use for the benefit of American consumers and businesses,” said Chairman Pai. “As with all of our efforts to execute on the 5G FAST plan, we’re pushing to get next-generation wireless services deployed in the 3.5 GHz band as quickly and efficiently as possible. I would like to thank Commissioner Mike O’Rielly for his leadership throughout this proceeding as well as the FCC staff and those in the private sector who have worked so hard to achieve this milestone.”

Verizon CEO defends mmWave strategy for 5G

Faced once again with persistent questions about its spectrum position for 5G, Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said the carrier’s spectrum strategy for 5G—using millimeter wave spectrum—is unique, and nobody else has the capability to do it like Verizon.

The comments came during Verizon’s fourth quarter earnings conference call, at the start of which the company said it would not talk about millimeter wave (mmWave) because that auction is ongoing. (The clock phase of Auction 103 just concluded .)

Other carriers are using mmWave spectrum to varying degrees, but Verizon is unique in how mmWave is at the heart of its 5G strategy, one that continues to draw snark from Wall Street analysts and others who question the economics. The higher band spectrum requires many small cells, and it’s concentrated in “hot spots” or small areas within metro areas, which is where Verizon says the most demand exists. Verizon also happens to have acquired the lion’s share of mmWave spectrum on the secondary market, via its acquisition of Straight Path, for example.

“In our case, I think we’re building a unique 5G experience with our millimeter wave that nobody else is building” and has the capability to do, Vestberg said. “I think that’s really where the difference will come. We already have the best 4G network, as you have seen from the latest J.D. Power and RootMetrics [studies]. We’re going to continue to have that. We’re going to give the best experience to our customers and I’m confident that how we are building the network will make a big difference.”

That’s also why Verizon feels confident that with the advent of some 20 more 5G devices this year, including a potential 5G iPhone, “we will have a good chance to grab more customers that want to be on our network,” he said.

NTIA cites progress in 3450-3550 MHz band for sharing

In an encouraging sign from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for operators, the entity announced significant progress in finding potential spectrum sharing options for the 3450-3550 MHz band.

The news comes as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced this week that the nearby 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) band is officially open for commercial business. The band includes a portion for unlicensed uses as well as a planned auction later this year for licensed services.

The NTIA produced a technical report this week indicating that while commercial operations in the 3450-3550 MHz band would impact incumbent federal systems, spectrum sharing may be possible that provides both sufficient protection to incumbent operations and attractive opportunities for commercial business.

There's No Wireless Without Wires, No 5G Without Fiber

As the immediate buzz from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) dies down and the telecom and tech worlds prepare for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, conversations continue to center on 5G and the next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) applications it will enable. Self-driving cars. 8K TVs. VR glasses. Wearables we haven’t even yet invented.

There is ample reason for this excitement: 5G will provide gigabit speeds, sub-one-millisecond latency and the capacity to connect an astonishing 2.5 million devices per square mile.

So yes, 5G is exciting, but it’s not quite here yet and it is, unfortunately, causing a lot of confusion about our future networks. Some people seem to believe 5G will replace the need for fiber broadband. Far from it. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: 5G needs fiber.

Much of the 5G conversation centers on 5G spectrum, but the airwaves will only play a part in the 5G puzzle. As Wired reported, 5G involves not only spectrum, but also “lowly cable.” That is in part because 5G will use higher-spectrum frequencies than 4G. These millimeter-wave frequencies are able to transmit much more data, but they have short ranges and can have difficulty penetrating certain materials. Because of this, small cell transmitters must be installed close together — as close as 200 feet apart. Fiber will connect these small cells to each other. In fact, to provide multi-gigabit wireless service to many users, IoT devices and apps we must deploy hundreds of thousands — perhaps millions — of miles of new fiber optic cable. Our wireless infrastructure requires that we extend fiber deep into the network to make 5G work.

For 5G in particular, the connection between small cells and macrocells will ideally be made with fiber. Copper provides insufficient bandwidth. Microwave can help in areas where the geography or other factors prohibit laying fiber, but ultimately it is not a scalable solution to meet the vast scope of 5G. Fiber, therefore, is the best choice for serving the increased number of wireless serving points that small cells will create at the needed bandwidth.

The industry agrees. From in-building wireless experts to FCC leadership to DAS systems providers to city and state officials, everyone concurs that fiber is the underlying critical infrastructure to make this all work. In September, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said the company must build 1,400 miles of fiber each month over the next couple of years to build out the network it needs for nationwide 5G. Stated Vestberg: “The fiber deployment for us was extremely important” in 5G preparation and deployment.”

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