Author: Pat Kline

Trump administration officials, progressively intent on preventing Chinese global technological domination, keep floating the idea that the U.S. government should take a more direct hand in running next-generation 5G wireless networks.

But the notion isn’t terribly popular — not even within the administration.

On Thursday, Attorney General William Barr said the U.S. government should consider taking a controlling stake in the European companies Nokia and Ericsson to thwart the global ambitions of China-based Huawei, which holds a leading share of the market for 5G wireless equipment. The federal government could do so directly or via a company of U.S. and private investors, Barr said.

AT&T and Verizon both expanded their 5G ultra-wideband reach in January AT&T much more than Verizon, but none of the cellular carriers made truly major moves in the past few weeks with the 5G network. That’s all about to change with the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy S20 lineup on February 11, and the Mobile World Congress trade show starting February 24. The two events will deliver what is expected to be the first truly popular 5G phones to US carrier.

Up until now, the major, mainstream flagship phones in the US haven’t been 5G. Most of the high-end phones sold here are either Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Galaxy Note, or Apple iPhone models, and up until now, only super-expensive variants of the S and Note have carried 5G support.

Samsung could duplicate last year’s strategy and only offer 5G on its highest-end Galaxy S20 models. But if it goes ahead and activates 5G up and down its line, millions more Americans will start to use 5G networks.

Verizon’s 5G ultra wideband service is heading to the Super Bowl, but the carrier won’t tell us whether its new network will cover all the seats in the stadium.

With Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami scheduled for February 2, Verizon emailed a media alert to Ars and other news outlets on Wednesday last week, bragging that it will “power the first Super Bowl featuring 5G.” Notably missing from the news alert was any indication of how many fans will be able to use the 5G network from their seats during the game.

ARS Technica has asked Verizon if all the seats and other parts of the stadium will have 5G access and got a vague answer from the company spokesperson who sent out the media alert: “Fans can access 5G (Ultra Wideband) in the bowl seating area, parts of the concourse, ticketing areas, and parking lot.

5G networks are the next generation of mobile internet connectivity, offering faster speeds and more reliable connections on smartphones and 5G ultra wideband supported devices.

Combining cutting-edge network technology and the latest high tech devices, 5G offers reliable connections that are significantly faster than current cable connection and other internet hookups, with average download speeds of around 1GBps expected to soon be the average connections offered on the 5G network.

The 5G network are expected to supercharge the (IoT) Internet of Things technology, providing the infrastructure needed to carry huge amounts of data that allows for a smarter and more connected world.

5G networks have launched around the world with many cellular providers offering connectivity tech across the US, UK, and Australia as well as a variety of other countries around the world today.

Apple can seemingly do no wrong. The company’s stock is up 103% in the last 12 months, iPhone 11 units are moving at a brisk pace alongside strong demand from China,

Apple is expected to release the 5G iPhone later this year. That has investors hoping for a massive uptick in device upgrades, which would be a major boost to Apple’s bottom line. As one of the small groups of $1 trillion companies that include Microsoft and Google, Apple will need some impressive sales to keep investors happy.

But not everyone shares the enthusiasm of a potential 5G powered sales supercycle. But at least one analyst says that the prospects for massive demand for 5G iPhones could be overblown.

The general manager of IBM,s Global Media, and Entertainment industry, said that 2020 will be the year that 5G reaches an inflection point and will roll out at full scale.

At CES 2020 about the benefits of 5G to the Internet of Things (IoT), edge computing, manufacturing. Steve Canepa the general manager of IBM explained “5G, as we’ve all seen, is starting to show up in all kinds of different ways with the telecommunications providers now having the spectrum that they’re starting to deploy. We’re seeing different providers have their evolution to 5G offerings in the marketplace. We’re going to see it show up in fixed locations, manufacturing floors, stadiums, facilities, all of that is going to start rolling out at scale in 2020, so it’s an exciting time. And for us, 5G is really an inflection point, I think because it brings three core advantages to businesses that are trying to create new value. “

As more and more 5G phones go on sale, there still aren’t many affordable 5G supported phones available, with the most affordable phone in the US costing just under $900. That is all set to change in 2020, and the first to break the mold is the first 5G handset from TCL.

The brand new TCL 10 series announced at CES 2020 includes a 5G-ready handset that is set to debut later in the year and will cost under $500 (roughly £380, AU$720).

TCL has teased three new handsets as part of the series that includes the TCL 10L, TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10 5G. The official launch – and therefore when we’ll hear about a full spec list – is set to take place at Mobile World Congress in February.

AT&T has a Total of 19 cities with 5G service, Recently adding New York City, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Detroit, and Philadelphia. These cites are built on AT&T low band 850 MHz spectrum technology. Not to be confused with its rebranded LTE network — which AT&T calls 5G E.

Access to AT&T’s 5G network is included at no extra charge with AT&T’s Unlimited Extra or Unlimited Elite plans ($75 or $85 per month for a single line) — although using 5G data will count toward the unlimited plans’ throttling caps (50GB and 100GB of total data usage).

Verizon has activated the 5G ultra wideband service in Columbus Ohio today December 23, 2019, Services can be found downtown Ohio state at Ohio State University, Italian Village, Easton, Polaris, Lewis Center and around several other landmarks. Verizon claims the new service allows for mobile speeds up to 1 Gbps on enabled 5G devices.

Charlie Ergen said Dish plans to deploy 10,000 sites for its 5G network by the end of 2022, which analysts at New Street Research called “modestly negative” for towers, as the firm had previously assumed Dish would build 30,000 sites by 2023. Information was released at T-Mobile/Sprint merger.

Dish Network is seen as key to Sprint and T-Mobile’s merger fate since the “fix” reached by the U.S. Department of Justice includes Dish entering the wireless scene as a viable fourth competitor.