Monica Alleven

Using terms like “predatory” and “anti-competitive,” four retail wireless dealers filed suit against T-Mobile in recent weeks, all saying they were basically run out of business since the operator's merger with Sprint. Absolute Wireless, Maycom, Solutions Center and Wireless Express each named T-Mobile in their complaints. All of them previously sold wireless services for Sprint.

UScellular lost more postpaid customers in the fourth quarter of 2021 – about 12,000 – on top of the 8,000 it lost in the third quarter of 2021. “We have to continue to do better,” said UScellular President and CEO Laurent Therivel. But the company's share of gross adds was quite strong in 2021, particularly in the fourth quarter. “It’s really a churn story,” Therivel said. “The churn dynamic is going to be affected by the upgrade promotions.

Nokia is using the unlicensed portion of the CBRS 3.5 GHz spectrum band to supply a private LTE network for a school district in San Joaquin Valley (CA). Nokia announced that it completed the first of two phases for the deployment. It’s working with AggreGateway, a small wireless engineering firm based in San Diego (CA). The network serves students in the Dos Palos Oro Loma (DPOL) school district of California. Located in the predominantly rural San Joaquin Valley, the district comprises five campuses and serves a population of 5,000 residents.

T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert commented how it was regrettable that “this has been so widely reported as a 5G issue,” when asked about C-band spectrum and the concerns of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) about possible interference. He’s not alone. A lot of folks regret that the entire 5G market is getting a bad name from C-band. It’s one of the spectrum bands that carriers are using to deliver 5G services –  but one of many. Granted, it’s one of the most valued – companies spent more than $80 billion for the rights to use it in the Federal Communications Commission’s auction in 2021.

In what’s described as a “proposed decision,” California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Administrative Law Judge Karl Bemesderfer has denied a petition by Dish Network that seeks more time in migrating CDMA customers off T-Mobile’s network. In a filing in early February 2022, the CPUC said the decision by ALJ Bemesderfer has no legal effect “until and unless” the commission hears the item and votes to approve it. The item may be heard, at the earliest, at the California commission’s March 17 meeting. But it essentially signals defeat for Dish at the CPUC level on this item.

AT&T will shut down its 3G network in February 2022, making way for 5G spectrum and services. But other operators worldwide, whose customers roam onto AT&T, still require the use of circuit-switch fallback, and that’s where Syniverse comes in. On January 25, Syniverse announced, in collaboration with AT&T, the development and deployment of a solution that preserves inbound voice roaming after AT&T phases out its 3G network on February 22, 2022.

Remember the bit about the 12 GHz band that 5G proponents were using to advance their argument at the Federal Communications Commission? The one about “no federal encumbrances”? That seems to be rising to the top in the wake of all the recent problems associated with C-band spectrum. Granted, the 12 GHz band has its own set of challenges for the 5G for 12 GHz Coalition, which represents Dish Network, among others.

Starry, a small internet service provider based in Boston (MA), is celebrating a milestone for its Starry Connect service, expanding the reach of its digital equity program to more than 55,990 household units of public and affordable housing. Starry reached that goal at the end of 2021, a year that saw the company ink a deal with FirstMark Horizon Acquisition Corp. that will take it public. The company remains on track to close that SPAC transaction by the end of the first quarter of 2022. Starry Connect, its $15/month product that promises 30 Mpbs, targets public and affordable housing.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in favor of the Federal Communications Commission in its decision to designate a large swath of the 6 GHz band to unlicensed users, including Wi-Fi. AT&T had challenged the FCC’s decision, saying it posed potential interference with existing fixed microwave users. “Petitioners have failed to provide a basis for questioning the Commission’s conclusion that the Order will protect against a significant risk of harmful interference,” the court wrote in its December 28 decision.

RS Access, one of the firms that holds 12 GHz licenses alongside Dish Network, is behind a new analysis that accuses SpaceX of using erroneous data in its evaluation of how satellite companies can use the adjacent 10.7-11.7 GHz band. SpaceX and OneWeb are considered non-geostationary orbit fixed satellite service operators, and they contend the 10.7-11.7 GHz band is too encumbered with other users for them to use it for their satellite services. They want to be able to use the 12.2-12.7 GHz band without having to deal with the likes of Dish and/or RS Access.