Author: Maureen

Despite previously saying that they would launch nationwide 5G in 2020, T-Mobile announced today that they play to deploy 5G service on 600 MHz and millimeter wave spectrum nationwide this year.

AT&T and Verizon have each launched 5G using millimeter wave in around 12 markets, and Sprint has deployed 5G on the 2.5GHz spectrum in a few locations, but T-Mobile currently only offers 5G in 6 markets. If they do launch nationwide this year, they will have the most 5G coverage of any US carrier.

T-Mobile’s 5G service likely won’t be as fast as Verizon’s or AT&T’s due to the frequencies they’ll be using, but it will be faster than LTE and will have much better latency.

T-Mobile plans to offer a 5G phone to go along with their service soon and will have two by the end of the year. One that has already been announced is the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren, which will be exclusive to T-Mobile.

The US Federal Communications Commission has voted to approve the $26.5 billion merger between T-Mobile and Sprint.

“We appreciate the diligent evaluation, time and attention the FCC commissioners took to assess our transaction,” T-Mobile CEO John Legere Legere said, adding that the approval brings the company “one step closer” to the New T-Mobile.

There is still opposition and some obstacles to overcome, however. New York and 15 other states oppose the merger, but T-Mobile is working closely with the attorneys general of each state to resolve the concerns. Mississippi has dropped their suit against the company after T-Mobile committed to deploy a 5G network that provides 100Mbps speeds to 62% of the state’s urban and rural population and cover 92% of the population and 88% of its rural population within six years of merging with Sprint. T-Mobile has said before that it will not close the deal until all issues with the opposing states have been resolved, so similar agreements will likely follow.

Starting this week, residents in Chicago can sign up for Verizon’s 5G Home service. “Now, in addition to Verizon’s speedy 5G Ultra Wideband mobility service, Chicago customers can access 5G Home Internet, the next generation of lightning fast home broadband internet service,” said Brian Higgins, vice president, device and consumer product marketing, Verizon. “With flexibility, freedom and choice that enables a whole new world of experiences, 5G Home Internet is truly the future of home connectivity.”

Verizon’s 5G Home service costs $50 per month for Verizon customers and $70 per month for non-Verizon customers and includes a 5G router with built-in Alexa as well as a free month of YouTube TV. Verizon’s 5G Home speeds average around 300 Mbps and peak up to 1 Gbps, and super low latency makes it ideal for gaming and streaming.

Customers in Chicago can sign up for the 5G service with Verizon beginning October 24.

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New 5G mmWave signal booster platform will enable 5G amplification for in-building solutions

Los Angeles, California – October 17, 2019 – SureCall, the performance leader in cell signal booster solutions, today announced its 5G Everywhere booster platform for scalable 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) signal boosters and antenna kitting options. SureCall’s comprehensive design platform offers the flexibility that carriers need to provide tailored 5G mmWave services across North America while maintaining the same award-winning quality, reliability, and compliance with FCC regulations.

The 5G Everywhere booster platform allows carriers and partners to build customizable signal boosting solutions to overcome the natural 5G signal propagation challenges and bring the technology into the homes and lives of consumers. The 5G Everywhere booster platform includes industry-leading features such as the exclusively patented Extended Range Technology™ (ERT) as well as amplification for all carriers operating 5G on the 28 GHz mmWave band. In addition, the platform is fully FCC compliant with current and upcoming 5G regulations, including network protection standards, for seamless integration into cell tower networks.

“Signal boosters have always proven effective at resolving cell signal penetration impediments and as we enter the era of 5G they will become more important,” said SureCall founder and CEO Hongtao Zhan. “Our 5G Everywhere booster platform allows carriers and other partners to meet their customer’s needs and enable 5G consumption at scale with the flexibility to handle a variety of applications and the benefit of nearly 20 years of innovation, quality, and reliability in the industry.”

A unique obstacle to making 5G mmWave available for the wider public would be the stark contrast in the way current cell signals, including 4G LTE, and 5G mmWave signals, propagate. Today’s cell towers are capable of delivering functional cell signals up to 30-45 miles away while the 5G mmWave cell towers are expected to only cover areas up to a few blocks away.

Even more challenging, the penetration power of 5G mmWave signals is much weaker compared to the current bands being used today. Not only do the 5G mmWave frequencies have shorter range, but they are also much more sensitive to obstacles such as walls, windows, and doors, and are even impeded by leaves on trees or falling rain water, making 5G mmWave signal boosters a necessity.

SureCall will debut the 5G Everywhere booster platform in booth 2506 at Mobile World Congress Americas (MWCA 2019) in Los Angeles, October 22-24. For more information or to schedule a meeting with SureCall, e-mail MWCA@surecall.com.

About SureCall

SureCall is the multi-patent, award-winning performance leader for cell phone signal boosters. Since its inception in 2001, SureCall has quickly grown to innovate at the cutting edge of the industry, winning back-to-back Inc. 5000 awards every year since 2016 as well as the 2017 CES Innovation Award, among many other accolades. SureCall combines its patented engineering with top-quality materials and comprehensive lifetime support to provide best-in-class solutions for mobile device users to access dependable cell service in their homes, offices, and vehicles. As a result, industry leaders such as Chrysler, Marriott, NASA, and HP all trust SureCall’s FCC-approved signal boosters for their quality, reliability, and performance.

Verizon has been focused on building up their fiber network to serve as the backbone of their 5G service, but they are now looking at an alternative that may make 5G rollout easier in areas where deploying new fiber infrastructure is impractical or too expensive. The alternative technology they’re looking into is called Integrated Access Backhaul (IAB) technology, and it would allow Verizon to link a tower that has fiber running to it with another tower that doesn’t via a wireless connection, routing traffic from the nonconnected tower to the fiber-connected tower.

The 3GPP, the governing body behind the 5G standard, is adopting IAB into its next set of specifications, and equipment manufacturers will likely start implementing IAB into hardware soon. Glenn Wellbrock, director of architecture, design, and planning for Verizon’s optical transport network, says that Verizon plans to start using the technology by late 2020.

Utilizing IAB will allow Verizon to expand their 5G network much faster. AT&T is also looking into IAB, and others may as well.

Thus far, all 5G roll-outs from US carriers have been “non-standalone” (NSA) 5G, meaning they utilize 4G LTE as the backbone. AT&T has now announced that they will begin deploying standalone 5G in 2020, making them the first carrier to do so. Verizon has said that they will deploy standalone 5G in 2020 or 2021, and T-Mobile plans to begin deployment in the timeframe as well, while Sprint has no plans to move away from NSA 5G.

Standalone 5G will have big advantages for enterprises. “It’s easy to get lower latencies, and you can do network slicing,” says Daryl Schoolar, practice leader of next-generation architecture at Ovum. Network slicing allows the virtualized 5G standalone core to create partitioned virtual segments on the physical network, an important benefit for mission-critical IoT applications.

New devices will be needed to use standalone 5G vs NSA. “The initial devices use silicon that doesn’t support standalone and will continue to be supported by our non-standalone Core,” said an AT&T spokesperson.

Faster speeds are what most consumers think about when they look towards 5G, but the new technology will offer other benefits as well. Verizon Media Group CEO Guru Gowrappan explained that the lower latency versus older technologies will be a game-changer for a variety of applications, from driverless cars to healthcare to advertising. “Every industry is going to get disrupted,” Gowrappan said. “5G just accelerates that.”

“Think about driverless cars,” Gowrappan said. “What 5G does is it literally takes latency away,” allowing applications to react in the “blink of an eye.”

The lower latency and additional bandwidth will also mean potential big changes in the healthcare industry, as remote access to doctors and other professionals can be made possible.

Gowrappan explained that 5G will impact virtually any business that requires wiring and data processing as 5G’s speeds and low latency make more things possible than ever before.

T-Mobile and Sprint are still awaiting resolution on their $26 billion merger, and T-Mobile is now slowing down deployment of 5G infrastructure as they wait for the merger to play out in court. A report indicates that T-Mobile is not adding new sites for 5G macrocells currently, as they need the financial boost that regulatory and court approval for the Sprint merger will bring.

The merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, announced in April 2018, was and expected to finalize in the first half of 2019. Due to lawsuits and the lengthy court processes required, the merger has taken much longer.

T-Mobile’s delays in 5G infrastructure buildup will obviously push back the timeline their 5G rollout, but it may have larger implications across the 5G space as well, including potentially higher costs for customers.

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Verizon has officially turned on 5G service in parts of New York City as well as in Panama City, Florida and Boise, Idaho. Verizon 5G is now available in 13 cities around the country, putting them ahead of Sprint and T-Mobile but still behind AT&T. Sprint currently offers 5G in 9 cities and T-Mobile has service available in 6, but AT&T has coverage in 21 (although their service is not available to consumers).

New York users will be able to use 5G in parts of Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn, with service targeted around popular landmarks and attractions like Bryant Park, Madison Square Garden, and the Broadway Theater District. In Panama City, service is available downtown, in Forest Park, and by the Lower Grand Lagoon. In Boise, Verizon 5G is available in parts of Downtown, West Boise, Boise Town Square, and other popular areas.

Like the rest of their 5G network, Verizon is using millimeter-wave frequencies in these new locations. Millimeter-wave offers very fast download speeds but is limited in range, so service only works outdoors in close proximity to Verizon’s 5G towers.

Security can be a big concern with any new technology, and some people have worried about how 5G networks will impact national security. Andy Purdy, Huawei CSO and former director of national cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, is confident that 5G is no less secure than previous mobile technologies, and in fact may prove to be even safer.

Purdy explained in a column on Forbes that 5G utilizes the best security factors of 4G, while adding new protocols to address previously unresolved threats. New security protocols offered by 5G include enhanced user authentication and stronger data encryption. “I believe that all communications networks need objective, transparent protections that hew to international standards,” Purdy wrote. He went on to add that “given the advanced new technology 5G brings to bear on network security, it can make networks more secure than they’ve ever been.”

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