Administration Chooses First Four States to Tap $10B Broadband Fund

By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief

The Treasury Department has started approving broadband grants to states from a $10 billion fund approved under the American Rescue Plan’s Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund (CPF). A key priority of the program is to make funding available for reliable, affordable broadband infrastructure and other digital connectivity technology projects. The Treasury Department said Tuesday that Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia, and West Virginia are the first states to be approved to receive funds under the American Rescue Plan and will connect over 200,000 homes and businesses. The state plans approved in this first group are designed to meet or exceed symmetrical download and upload speeds of 100 Mbps.  The Treasury Department said it designed its guidance “to prioritize connecting families and businesses with poor and inadequate service – particularly those in rural and remote areas.” States must also explain why communities they have identified to be served with funds from the CPF critically need those projects. Continue Reading

T-Mobile Buildout Eyes 1.9 GHz Band Next

By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor

In the two years since the Sprint merger, T-Mobile has pushed forward with the deployment of its 5G network and is ahead of schedule and ahead of the competition, Neville Ray told the UBS Future of 5G Event live webcast last week.  T-Mobile’s next “big push” will be to roll out 5G in the PCS 1.9 GHz band, according to Ray. Together with the carrier’s AWS portfolio (1710-1755 and 2110-2155 MHz), it has 110 MHz of FDD spectrum. Ray updated the audience on the carrier’s mid-band 2.5 GHz TDD spectrum coverage plans, which included 225 million people as of Q1. Its goal is to extend that number to 260 million by the end of the year, and 300 million by the end of 2023. T-Mobile now has an average of 100 MHz of spectrum across a nation dedicated to 5G in the mid band, which Ray said is more than AT&T and Verizon combined, and the T-Mobile 5G spectrum is expected to double by the end of 2023. Continue Reading

T‑Mobile Brings Voice to Standalone 5G

T-Mobile has proclaimed to have achieved another wireless first, launching commercial Voice Over New Radio (VoNR) service in limited areas of Portland, OR and Salt Lake City, UT, with plans to expand it to more areas this year. 

“Standalone 5G is the future of wireless, and because it isn’t anchored to LTE, it will be capable of delivering a new level of performance with incredibly fast speeds, real-time responsiveness and massive connectivity. Now that Standalone 5G is beginning to carry voice traffic with the launch of VoNR, all services are possible on 5G,” said Neville Ray, T-Mobile President of Technology. Continue Reading

Rosenworcel Explains the “Why” Behind the “Rip & Replace” Funding Gap

By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief

On June 15, the FCC must be able to verify the suspected $3.7 billion gap in Rip & Replace reimbursement funding. Senators Roger Wicker, (R-MS) Ranking Member of the Commerce Committee, and committee member Gary Peters (D-MI), asked Rosenworcel for an initial analysis of why the reimbursement requests exceeded the $1.9 billion Congress appropriated to reimburse small carriers for removing and replacing suspect gear from Huawei and ZTE from their networks. They also asked when the agency will determine the final amount eligible for reimbursement, and what will happen if demands outstrip available support. Continue Reading

Gigabit Speeds Achieved in FWA Test

By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor

As fiber and wireless jockey for a piece of the FCC Rural Development Opportunity Fund (RDOF) payout, Resound Networks and Airspan Networks Inc. have achieved fixed wireless access data speeds that may make wireless an even more competitive choice to close the digital divide. Using 6 GHz spectrum at a distance of over three miles in real-world testing, the two companies achieved speeds of 1 Gbps download and 500 Mbps upload, using Airspan’s Mimosa A6 and C6x WiFi 6E OFDMA (orthogonal frequency-division multiple access) technologies.  “This test demonstrates the importance of this eagerly anticipated band to deliver fiber quality services via wireless in rural areas nationwide,” said Tyson Curtis, CEO of Resound Networks, which is a wireless ISP that serves New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The test exceeded Resound Networks' gigabit-tier distance expectations by 50 percent, he added. Continue Reading

Talking Top 5G Stocks

By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor

Disclaimer: Inside Towers does not recommend either the buy or sell of any securities. Our analysis presented herein is for discussion purposes only.  For more in-depth financial reporting related to the wireless infrastructure business, subscribe to Inside Towers Intelligence. In a special report, Investor Place offered some perspectives on what it believes are the Top 5 must-have stocks to ride the 5G wave.  No. 1: Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO)  Cisco is the go-to supplier for networking and IT gear used in 5G networks. In February 2022, CSCO announced its go-to-market strategy for Cisco Private 5G to enhance productivity for Enterprises with mass-scale IoT adoption. Private 5G enables connectivity for a full range of use cases in diverse vertical markets such as manufacturing, transportation, university campuses and hospitals. No. 2: Corning (NYSE: GLW) Corning’s Optical Communications division is the premier supplier of optical fiber cables and components used in wireline and wireless carrier networks, data centers and Enterprises. Fiber is in such demand for 5G builds that many suppliers and contractors must order in quantity months in advance. Continue Reading

What Do You Think About Competition in the Communications Market?

By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief

The FCC wants to know what you think about competition in the communications marketplace. The data will inform its quarterly report to Congress. The agency must assess competition to deliver voice, video, audio, and data services among providers of telecommunications, providers of commercial mobile service, multichannel video programming distributors, broadcast stations, providers of satellite communications, internet service providers, and other communications services providers. It must consider all forms of competition, including “the effect of intermodal competition, facilities-based competition, and competition from new and emergent communications services.” Continue Reading