Octopus Overlords

AT&T announced plans to roll out 5G mobile internet to consumers in a dozen US cities this year, including areas of Atlanta, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, the company announced Wednesday.

The early mobile 5G deployments will be based on the newly accepted industry standard for 5G technology, which was affirmed in December by 3GPP, the international wireless standards body.

The 5G network will be powered by technologies including software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), which will enable the carrier to quickly develop, deploy, and protect the network. By 2020, AT&T plans to virtualize over 75% of its network, up from 55% in 2017, using the SDN framework.

To aid AT&T in its goal of becoming the first US company to launch a 5G cellular network, the company is launching a new 5G innovation center and test lab. The 5G lab is set to open in Austin, Texas, and will be used to conduct stress tests, simulating real-world customer experiences, before rolling out the technology to consumers. AT&T's first project at the lab, for instance, is the Advanced 5G NR Testbed System (ANTS), which will enable the carrier to trial novel and advanced features on a simulated 5G network for use on the company's 5G mobile network.

5G technology will pave the way for the adoption of new and advanced technologies.The ability of 5G to transmit data roughly 10 times as fast as 4G, the current standard, will revolutionize the connected world.
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Of course, AT&T isn't the only US carrier committed to being the first to deploy a 5G network in the US. AT&T is joining Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, all of which have already announced their 5G rollout plans. Verizon announced in December that it will offer wireless home broadband internet services in up to five US cities in 2018, starting with Sacramento, California. Meanwhile, Sprint and T-Mobile plan to launch 5G networks by the end of 2019.

Carriers have differed in their approach to the transition from 3G to various flavors of LTE, but this year AT&T and Verizon have been leading the charge with definitive moves to force module and device manufacturers to also make the switch to LTE. As of June 2017, new 3G devices have not been permitted to enter the AT&T certification lab.
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For device manufacturers with existing devices, the impacts of these moves are less immediate but still very relevant. Verizon has announced that it will cease to support 3G devices on its network by the end of 2019, roughly two years away. Additionally, earlier this year T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray expressed his desire to sunset T-Mobile’s 3G network in 2019 as well. One could infer, although unconfirmed, that AT&T may not be too far behind the actions of those carriers.

Verizon's 5G home broadband service is today launching in parts of Indianapolis, Houston, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, Verizon announced this morning.

Verizon began accepting pre-orders for the 5G Home service on Thursday, September 13, and customers who signed up will now be able to access their 5G connections.
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5G Home is built on Verizon's Ultra Wideband 5G network and it is the first commercial 5G service to launch in the United States.

Verizon's 5G internet service will be priced at $50 per month for customers who are also Verizon Wireless customers, and $70 per month for those who are not already Verizon Wireless customers.

Immediately after the company announced last month that its service ($50 for Verizon Wireless customers, $70 for everyone else) was finally coming, the criticism poured in. The company's service doesn't run on the industry-agreed standard for what 5G looks like. Because of that, the commercial deployment this year -- in neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Dallas and Indianapolis -- would be extremely limited.
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Chan defends Verizon against the claims that its technology isn't real 5G, noting that its 5G TF (Technical Forum) proprietary standard was necessary to push the industry forward in developing the technology. The company's work jump-started the ecosystem and got people thinking about the applications for 5G sooner than expected.

"If we hadn't taken this step, we'd still be looking at 2020 in terms of 5G mobility," Chan said.

Now, AT&T said it expects to launch its mobile 5G service this year, with broader deployments by T-Mobile and Sprint in 2019.

But Verizon's decision to employ 5G TF meant that its deployment this year would be limited. Chan said the company would offer its 5G home broadband service to more people starting in 2019 once it shifts over to the use of 5G NR, the global standard for the technology.

Despite the hype, 5G is still a long way from becoming a reality for the majority of everyday Americans. As companies such as AT&T and Verizon trade barbs over which one technically arrived first to the technology, analysts say the first 5G-capable smartphones will not even arrive on the market until next year at the earliest. And with carriers largely switching on their 5G networks in select cities at first, it will take years for 5G to become as commonplace as 4G LTE is today.
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In October, Verizon announced it had activated 5G service for customers in four cities. The product is not meant for use outside the home; instead, it is being offered as a stand-in for residential Internet service. Still, it is a potentially transformative offering — households with only one wired Internet provider might soon have an additional choice. But it is not “mobile data” in the way consumers tend to think of it.

This week, AT&T said it too had switched on its 5G service, announcing it is the “first and only company in the U.S. to offer a mobile 5G device over a commercial, standards-based mobile 5G network.” The catch? Access is limited for now to a select group of businesses and consumers in a dozen cities, and it requires the use of a mobile hotspot.

For its part, Sprint says it plans to launch its mobile 5G service in the first half of next year. Until its merger with T-Mobile is approved and complete, executives have said, Sprint will continue to operate as though nothing has changed. The proposed deal this week received a blessing from national security officials, though it must also get approval from the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission.

As for when we will see the first 5G-capable smartphone? Industry analysts say the consensus appears to be the first quarter of 2019.

“I think the expectation is probably Samsung,” said Walt Piecyk, an analyst at the research firm BTIG.

LG Electronics will unveil its first 5G smartphone at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company has announced.

It will be announced on the 24th of February at Center de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB) -- at the same date and location LG will be unveiling its G8 smartphone -- and showcased to visitors until the tradeshow ends on the 28th.

The smartphone, which the company did not name yet, will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855. The processor will be 45 percent faster than the previous generation, LG said.

The 5G model will also have a vapour chamber that will better protect it against heat compared to heat pipes, the company said. It will also sport a 4,000 mAh battery.
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In August, LG said it plans to launch a 5G smartphone with US carrier Sprint within the first half of 2019.

Scuzz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:08 pm How does this effect me and my 3G flip phone?

I only have a 3G phone because At&T eliminated 2G and sent me a new 3G phone last year.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 1:52 pm ZDNet

LG Electronics will unveil its first 5G smartphone at the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the company has announced.

It will be announced on the 24th of February at Center de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona (CCIB) -- at the same date and location LG will be unveiling its G8 smartphone -- and showcased to visitors until the tradeshow ends on the 28th.

The smartphone, which the company did not name yet, will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855. The processor will be 45 percent faster than the previous generation, LG said.

The 5G model will also have a vapour chamber that will better protect it against heat compared to heat pipes, the company said. It will also sport a 4,000 mAh battery.
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In August, LG said it plans to launch a 5G smartphone with US carrier Sprint within the first half of 2019.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:18 pm

Scuzz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:08 pm How does this effect me and my 3G flip phone?

I only have a 3G phone because At&T eliminated 2G and sent me a new 3G phone last year.

You can expect them to do the same before the end of 2021.

A crucial element of 5G is to give wireless companies the ability to monetize their services more effectively, to ensure they’ll never again be treated like "dumb pipes" by online businesses they don't control. For carriers or network providers, the great advance of 5G is “network slicing,” which will allow carriers to create, on the fly, multiple customized virtual private networks for particular customers or applications. This will create a high-priced, services-based, perfectly-billed-for ecosystem that’s very different from the 4G world.

In effect, each 5G carrier will be able to define its network from moment to moment, charge whatever it wants for heavily marketed levels of service differentiation, and act as a gatekeeper for applications seeking entry. This allows for unlimited pricing power and deeply undermines the internet protocol’s basic premise—that any computer could speak to another using the same basic language. Instead, transport of bits will be completely software-defined and virtualized: Think proprietary cable network instead of internet access.

You can bet that Huawei, already the world’s largest maker of telecommunications equipment, will be looking for exclusivity in its geographic territories. This is the way telecom works, absent oversight: Companies that have made big up-front investments in infrastructure will always carve up territories so as to avoid ruinous competition. (The cable industry did this in the US, playfully calling their 1997 agreements to swap and combine systems to ensure individual companies would control entire markets the "Summer of Love.")

T-Mobile’s 5G network won’t launch in full until the second half of 2019 because phones aren’t ready yet, according to CNET, which spoke with T-Mobile’s chief technical officer about the delay. That’ll put T-Mobile at least a few months behind Verizon, Sprint, and possibly AT&T (which already has a limited 5G launch) as well.
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The problem is, there aren’t any phones yet that fully support T-Mobile’s 5G network, the carrier told CNET. The initial wave of 5G phones don’t take advantage of the main chunk of airwaves that T-Mobile is using to deploy 5G, and without that support, they just won’t be very useful.

A T-Mobile spokesperson said it wasn’t accurate to say the company is delaying its 5G launch until later this year, because T-Mobile will still be launching 5G millimeter wave installations. But there’ll be few locations that support millimeter wave, and because millimeter wave has a very short range, their reach will be quite limited.

Neville Ray, T-Mobile’s CTO, also said in a tweet that it was “wrong” to characterize this as a delay. But he acknowledged that the second half of the year is “when it gets more meaningful” for T-Mobile’s 5G network.

The Federal Communications Commission intends to move ahead with a plan to auction off wireless radio frequencies that scientists say could harm critical satellite data used in weather forecasting.

The FCC said the auction, scheduled Thursday, will proceed despite protests from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA, as well as two committees in the U.S. House.

For months, the FCC, supporting the interests of advancing 5G wireless technology, has sparred with NOAA and NASA, which have fought to protect the wireless radio frequencies or “spectrum” along and adjacent to frequencies weather data is passed.

Last week, the agencies reached an impasse when the FCC rejected a NOAA and NASA requests for further deliberation on spectrum policy.

In a last-ditch effort to intervene, three subcommittee chairs from the House Appropriations Committee, and the House Science Committee, chaired by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.) penned separate letters Wednesday to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, asking that the auction be delayed.

But FCC spokesman Brian Hart told The Washington Post in an email that the auction would proceed.

“[Thursday’s] 24 GHz auction is an important step towards securing American leadership in 5G,” he said. “While our nation’s international competitors would undoubtedly be pleased if we delayed this auction of greenfield spectrum at the last minute, the FCC will move forward as planned so that our nation can win the race to 5G and the American people can quickly enjoy the benefits of the next generation of wireless connectivity.”

The Appropriations Committee letter had stressed that a delay “is necessary to allow for further review of potential interference to adjacent band uses that are critical for national security as well as the protection of American lives and property.”

It explained that the NOAA “uses the 23.6-24 GHz spectrum band for microwave sensor-based remote sensing of atmospheric levels of water vapor, which is the single most impactful data stream for accurately forecasting weather. This data is used by NOAA’s National Weather Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Department of Defense (DOD), in addition to the broader international weather community.”
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The FCC’s Hart said the plan to auction this spectrum has “been on the books since 2007” and that “it is therefore perplexing to be asked to postpone this auction the day before it is going to start.”

AT&T has expanded its fledgling mobile 5G network to "parts" of seven more cities, including Austin, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose. The move puts AT&T's real 5G in a total of 19 cities, making Verizon's (Engadget's parent company) two-city rollout seem modest by comparison.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday asked AT&T (T.N) and Verizon Communications (VZ.N) to delay the planned Jan. 5 introduction of new 5G wireless service over aviation safety concerns.

In a letter Friday seen by Reuters, Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson asked AT&T Chief Executive John Stankey and Verizon Chief Executive Hans Vestberg for a delay of no more than two weeks as part of a "proposal as a near-term solution for advancing the co-existence of 5G deployment in the C-Band and safe flight operations."

The aviation industry and FAA have raised concerns about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters that could disrupt flights.
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Verizon and AT&T both said they received the letter and were reviewing it. Earlier Friday the two companies accused the aerospace industry of seeking to hold C-Band spectrum deployment "hostage until the wireless industry agrees to cover the costs of upgrading any obsolete altimeters."

Buttigieg and Dickson said under the framework "commercial C-band service would begin as planned in January with certain exceptions around priority airports."

According to an IEEE Spectrum analysis of reports made to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), complaints of malfunctioning and failing altimeters soared after the rollout earlier this year of high-speed 5G wireless networks, which use similar frequencies.

ASRS is a public database maintained by NASA to encourage U.S.-based air and ground crew, and air traffic controllers, to anonymously share safety incidents and concerns. Between January and May, there were 93 reports of faulty or failing radar altimeters, where a normal year might see only a handful. January alone saw almost twice as many complaints of malfunctioning altimeters as the previous five years combined. In most, including the Tennessee and Los Angeles incidents above, the reporter referred to 5G interference.
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ASRS contains at least 40 reports of possible 5G interference in the vicinity of the 50 airports with buffer zones. With six reports, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport had the most complaints.

“I've been flying an aircraft with a radar altimeter for years and never once have I seen a malfunction such as this until the 5G turn on,” wrote another pilot in Florida, whose altimeter fluctuated between -90 and 400 feet prior to takeoff. “Coincidence? Probably not.”
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The agency has reviewed over half of the reports, and was unable to rule out 5G interference in around 80 incidents.

The concern that 5G signals could cause massive flight delays appears to finally be over now that Delta has upgraded its airplanes to avoid interference.

Reuters reported the airline has finished updating the radio altimeters in its currently in-service fleet. Other aircraft out for planned maintenance will also be outfitted with the new altimeters. Delta told the Associated Press the update “means no Delta aircraft will be subject to additional weather-driven constraints.”