Monica Alleven

New Street Research believes that, as the economy takes a turn for the worse, postpaid cellphone plans are a better value than prepaid phone plans. New Street named T-Mobile and cable companies as the main beneficiaries of this trend – at the expense of AT&T and Verizon. “Competition has driven down the price of postpaid plans, while eliminating barriers to adoption (contracts; credit thresholds),” wrote New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin and Philip Burnett.

T-Mobile has been advised to stop implying that a consumer can save up to 50% on their home internet services compared to major competitors like Verizon. The recommendation comes from the National Advertising Division (NAD) of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) National Programs.

Dish Wireless is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to conduct field experiments to evaluate high power Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) operations and its impact on current operations in the band. The application is notable given that Dish was the second largest bidder in the CBRS auction in 2020 and has been lobbying for a higher power level for the band

Both AT&T and Verizon are pointing out how reliant their 5G wireless networks are on fiber – and how they’re reinforcing their investments to handle all the 5G data traffic that’s coming down the pike. Verizon said it’s “supercharging” the core of its fiber network by upgrading older router equipment with new gear provided by Juniper Networks. When it’s done, the upgrade will significantly increase the bandwidth needed to support wireless, home internet, enterprise, small business and its FIOS customers. Rival AT&T has been talking about its fiber expansion for a while now.

The 5G for 12 GHz Coalition, a group that includes Dish Network, RS Access [and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], said that it wants to set the record straight on Starlink’s “misinformation campaign.” The most recent spat started when SpaceX encouraged Starlink users to send messages to the Federal Communications Commission and lawmakers about the 12 GHz proceeding.

AT&T’s early move to counteract inflation and raise prices was the right thing to do, according to AT&T Communications COO Jeff McElfresh. McElfresh said it’s always hard to raise prices, but AT&T’s price increase was for a segment of customers on the oldest rate plans that didn’t have access to 5G or the latest and greatest features and benefits. “We didn’t do a broad stroke across the entire customer base,” he said.

So much for the “win-win-win” scenario that Dish Network envisioned for the 12 GHz band. Dish and RS Access have argued that the 12 GHz band can be used by both satellite players like SpaceX’s Starlink and by companies like Dish that want to use it for 5G, all for the public’s benefit.

In May 2022, Verizon said it was making fee “adjustments,” which included an administrative charge increase of $1.35 per voice line to $3.30. The carrier recently confirmed to CNET that it’s raising rates for older, shared data plans as well, and those are very similar to what AT&T announced.

Since it acquired the 2.5 GHz assets from Sprint, T-Mobile has been going gangbusters on 5G, to the point that it now covers 225 million points of presence (PoPs) and is well on its way to reach 260 million by the end of 2022. By the end of 2023, it expects to reach a population of 300 million with the “Ultra Capacity” 5G that relies on 2.5 GHz. In the short term, completing the integration with Sprint is job number. 1. “This is a big, big year for us from an integration perspective,” with network decommissioning.

As Dish Network prepares to show how it’s meeting its June 14th requirement of offering 5G to 20 percent of the US population, the satellite TV operator is battling new allegations from SpaceX over the 12 GHz band. Dish and SpaceX have been at odds over the 12 GHz band for over a year now. The conflict between the two ratcheted up recently when SpaceX accused Dish of meddling in its attempt to help people in Ukraine.