Only seven business days after it began, the FCC’s 24 GHz spectrum auction “blow past the $1 billion mark Friday (March 22).” The FCC is auctioning the spectrum “to free up more bandwidth for 5G wireless broadband, to help close the rural digital divide, and to make wireless a stronger competitor to wired broadband. New York and L.A. continue to lead, with bids on licenses there of $28,080,000 and $21,606,000, respectively, with Chicago in distant third with $10,436,000.”
FCC chairman says US has early 5G lead
Ajit Pai, chairman of the FCC, said U.S. companies are the front-runners in the global race to build 5G wireless networks, a week after President Trump said those companies must step up their efforts or get left behind. "In my view, we’re in the lead with respect to 5G," Pai...
Telcos bet on connecting everything to recoup 5G costs
Industry association GSMA, which hosts the Mobile World Congress, sees a vast opportunity in 5G. It estimates the number of devices connected to the IoT "will triple to 25 billion by 2025, generating a fourfold rise in revenues to $1.1 trillion." Borje Ekholm, CEO of Ericsson, sai...
The real 5G winners: Tower companies
CNN Business listed Crown Castle as one of the "big winners" in 5G expansion. CEO Jay Brown’s commentary from last month’s earning’s call was included, with Brown stating "what I find really intriguing about 5G and some of the emerging technologies is that they h...
Countdown to the closing bell With Liz Claman
Sean O’Hara, president of Pacer ETFS, noted in a segment of Closing Bell with Liz Claman there is an infrastructure revolution going on now and one of the big names in the cellphone tower business is Crown Castle. He added that "if we’re going to go to 5G, which we ess...
Statewide broadband bill passes out of committee
A bipartisan bill that would support the expansion of broadband service in Washington State, introduced in January by Gov. Jay Inslee, passed out of the House Capital Budget Committee last Tuesday in a unanimous vote. Governor Inslee’s office wrote that federal data "grossly...
Midwest states showing progress in rural connectivity
According to a report from the American Broadband Initiative, a federal initiative aimed at improving accessibility of internet connections, more than 92 percent of the U.S. population had access to fixed land-based broadband in 2016. However, of the 8 percent remaining, 80 percen...