Phil Britt

Being a major metropolitan area usually means having top-tier infrastructure, access to technology and other advantages, but that isn’t the case when it comes to mobile network performance, according to a study of the worst and best mobile wireless cities released by RootMetrics.

Best Mobile Wireless Cities: Topping the rankings was Knoxville (TN), the nation’s 73rd ranked metro area in terms of population, followed by St. Louis (MO) (20th in population), Minneapolis (MN) (16th in pop), Allentown (PA) (60th in pop), and Fort Wayne (IN) (118 in pop).

T-Mobile and Nokia have agreed to a $3.5 billion deal to accelerate deployment of a nationwide 5G network. Under terms of today’s announcement, T-Mobile gains access to Nokia’s complete end-to-end 5G technology, software and services portfolio. Additionally, Nokia will help construct T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network with 600 MHz and 28 GHz millimeter wave 5G capabilities, which are compliant with the new 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standards.

The Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), the Computer & Communications Industry Association,  ITTA – The Voice of America’s Broadband Providers (ITTA), and NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association (NTCA) have filed joint reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in opposition of the Commission’s proposed rule to prohibit the use of money distributed from the Universal Service Fund (USF) to purchase or obtain equipment or services from any providers identified as posing a national security risk to communications networks or the communications supply chain.

Cox Communications and US Ignite designated Las Vegas as the newest US Ignite Smart Gigabit Community (SGC). US Ignite’s SGC program is creating “living lab” environments for the next generation of gigabit applications. Las Vegas is the 25th community designated as an SGC. The designation is designed to facilitate collaboration among US Ignite, universities, municipalities, community anchor institutions like hospitals and schools, nonprofits, network carriers and ISPs.

Nokia will combine its worldwide delivery capabilities and wireless passive optical network (WPON) with Facebook’s Terragraph technology to launch global gigabit broadband trials in 2018 with select customers. The Nokia, Facebook project is an attempt to accelerate the adoption of 60 GHz fixed wireless access technologies to deliver gigabit services and connect more people.

Most who say they understand the net neutrality issue say they support it, according to a new study of net neutrality perceptions from research firm GfK. According to the study, about half (55%) of all US consumers report that they understand the issue of net neutrality – regardless of whether they are following the neutrality debate closely.