AT&T will purchase embattled spectrum-license holder Straight Path Communications for $1.25 billion in stock plus liabilities to gain access to the millimeter-wave spectrum holder’s cache of 28 GHz and 39 GHz frequencies.  The deal objective is to enhance AT&T’s 5G capabilities via Straight Path’s holding of 28 gigahertz and 39 GHz millimeter-wave spectrum — frequencies… Read more →

Standards for the 5G era ITU membership gathered at the quadrennial World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-16) have accelerated support for standards work on 5G, IoT, smart cities, fintech – and more. ITU membership has called for ITU’s standardization arm to expand its study of the wireline networking innovations required to achieve the ambitious performance targets of smart 5G… Read more →

By Stéphane Téral, senior research director, mobile infrastructure and carrier economics, IHS Markit Bottom Line 5G will come in two waves: first, sub-6GHz in 2017, followed by the “real” 5G at higher spectrum bands—millimeter wave (mmWave)—in 2020 Sub-6GHz spectrum is not new: it’s where existing mobile and wireless communications already coexist Service providers in the… Read more →

by Scott Bicheno & edited by Alan J Weissberger Six of the world’s biggest technology companies have joined forces in order to work out how best to exploit the 150 MHz of unlicensed spectrum that has been made available for commercial use. The spectrum is in the 3.5 GHz band (specifically 3550-3700 MHz) and is… Read more →

1.  Verizon and KT to collaborate on 5G standard and technology:  Verizon Communications (VZ) and Korea Telecom (KT) will collaborate on development of 5G wireless technology ahead of a planned 2018 demonstration of the proposed standard. KT Chairman Hwang Chang-gyu  noted in a statement:  “Global partnership for the 5G standardization is very crucial ahead of its planned… Read more →

The latest Ericsson Mobility Report covers the period to 2021. Ericsson has forecast significant growth in a wide range of factors. Some of the highlight figures include: Mobile broadband subscriptions: CAGR of 15% LTE subscriptions: CAGR of 25% Data traffic per smartphone: CAGR of 35% Total mobile data traffic: CAGR of 45%   Video to dominate mobile… Read more →

IHS-Infonetics today released excerpts from its 2015 IHS Infonetics 4G and 5G Strategies and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, for which operators were interviewed about their LTE network deployment plans, challenges and service offerings. Half of respondents participating in the study say they have already deployed LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) in their LTE networks. 4G AND… Read more →

Background: Despite only a “vision” with no definition or specs from ITU-R of fifth generation wireless networks (5G),  mobile vendors and wireless network operators continue to keep talking about 5G ready products and deployment — even if they’re not really even sure what 5G is yet.   In the last year, we have seen carriers announce “4.5G” and… Read more →

Introduction: While LTE roll-outs continue to increase, especially in developed countries, LTE Advanced (true 4G as defined by ITU-R) has not been deployed on a large scale anywhere that we know of (ABI Research disagrees- see section below).  We’re told by Stephane Teral (quoted below), LTE Advanced is just a software upgrade from LTE.  If… Read more →