Wireless Internet

The Federal Communications Commission opened the 6 GHz band to a new class of very low power devices that will operate alongside other Wi-Fi-enabled devices. These rules will spur an ecosystem of cutting-edge applications, including wearable technologies and augmented and virtual reality, that will help businesses, enhance learning opportunities, advance healthcare opportunities, and bring new entertainment experiences.

The Federal Communications Commission will allow E-Rate funding to be used for Wi-Fi on school buses beginning in funding year 2024 as the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) program is set to sunset. The action enhances the benefits and the reach of the E-Rate program to ensure that the millions of students caught in the Homework Gap can more fully engage in their learning. The action clarifies that the use of Wi-Fi, or other similar access point technologies, on school buses serves an educational purpose and the provision of such service is therefore eligible for E-Rate funding.

T-Mobile is hoping to significantly improve the depth and reach of its lowband 5G network. But Dish Network is looking to block that move. A 2019 agreement among Dish, T-Mobile, and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) ultimately paved the way for T-Mobile to close its $26 billion purchase of Sprint.

For the third quarter of 2023, AT&T reported growth in 5G and mobility, fiber subscribers and broadband revenues. The company added 296,000 fiber subscribers, surpassing 8 million AT&T Fiber subscribers in call— doubling the customer base in less than 4 years. Consumer broadband revenues are up 9.8%, driven by AT&T Fiber revenue growth of 26.9%. AT&T's consumer fiber network is now capable of serving 20.7 million consumers and about 3.3 million business customer locations; on track to pass 30 million+ fiber locations by the end of 2025.

Velocity, founded in 2018 and located in south central Kansas, is a subsidiary of the Butler Electric Cooperative and serves approximately 5,500 consumer customers. Velocity’s fixed wireless service operates on more than one band of unlicensed spectrum, depending on the loading and density of each tower. However, the organization will be migrating to fiber in the coming months and years. As a nonprofit, Velocity is trying to provide service as close to cost as possible. Velocity’s current fixed wireless pricing ranges from $49 (up to 15/3 Mbps) to $84 (up to 100/10 Mbps).

Dish Wireless collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies and Samsung to successfully test simultaneous 5G 2x uplink and 4x downlink carrier aggregation (CA) using Frequency-Division Duplexing (FDD) spectrum across FDD bands n71, n70 and n66. The result, according to Dish, is that it was able to achieve 200 Mbps peak uplink speeds with just 35 MHz of 5G spectrum and 1.3 Gbps peak downlink speeds with just 75 MHz of spectrum.

Governor Wes Moore (D-MD) announced $69 million in federal funding for two new programs to help more Marylanders access high-speed, affordable internet. Administered by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s Office of Statewide Broadband, the two programs, Home Stretch for Public Housing and Home Stretch for Difficult to Serve Properties, are expected to provide internet access to an estimated 15,000 unserved Maryland households.

In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Congress established a preference for “priority broadband projects,” defined as projects providing broadband service that meet high performance standards, can scale with consumer and business needs over time, and will enable the deployment of 5G and other advanced services. After receiving input from a wide range of parties, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) determined that “end-to-end fiber optic facilities” were the only platform that satisfied these requirements and warranted such a priority.

Mobile communications company Ligado Networks sued the U.S. Departments of Defense and Commerce for unlawful taking of Ligado’s constitutionally protected, exclusively licensed spectrum without compensation. Backed by a multiyear misinformation and disparagement campaign against Ligado to conceal these activities, the U.S.

Fifth-generation wireless networks have spread faster and farther than some early advocates predicted, but the technology—despite hundreds of billions of dollars invested worldwide—hasn’t revolutionized whole swaths of the economy the way past mobile technologies did. In the US, about 43% of people had 5G mobile subscriptions as of June, ranking 10th worldwide. Hong Kong had the world’s highest 5G penetration rate, with 74% of its population subscribed to the mobile service.