Sure, your phone is kind of fast… but it could be faster. A lot faster. All of the big wireless carriers are super excited about the whole new network generation of fast, but there’s a hitch: It doesn’t exist yet. But that’s not deterring T-Mobile, which is out there today promising to get you a nationwide 5G network while Verizon and AT&T are still pulling their metaphorical shoes on. [More]
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Verizon Reportedly Interested In Buying Comcast Or Other Big Cable Company
By 1.17.17
AT&T has been on a buying spree in the last two years, first snatching up DirecTV and its more than 20 million customers, and now trying to acquire the massive Time Warner media empire. The company’s nemeses at Verizon apparently have acquisition envy, and are mulling over a purchase of a cable biggie like Comcast or Charter. [More]
AT&T To Start Using DirecTV Now To Test 5G Tech
By 1.4.17
The future is wireless. At least, so all the wireless companies say. Sure, running actual cables to houses and apartment buildings brought broadband this far, but the always-on, always-streaming future is just going to get more and more mobile. And so the current era of 4G LTE wireless connections will eventually give way to 5G, which promises to be faster, better, and stronger in every way. But before you can use 5G tech, first you have to make it, you know, work. [More]
That FiOS Expansion In Boston May Be Wireless, Not Fiber
By 10.6.16
Hey, remember earlier this year when Verizon said that it was thinking about expanding FiOS into Boston, a city that longs for fiber internet access? The problem with that plan is that it won’t necessarily mean fiber lines leading to every home. Instead, Verizon’s high-speed deployment in Boston is mostly going to be wireless, probably 5G under the FiOS brand. [More]
AT&T Testing Super-Fast Wireless Internet Using Power Lines
By 9.20.16
While good chunks of the country, particularly rural and tribal lands, currently lack access to high speed broadband, most inhabited parts of America are serviced by power lines. AT&T is currently testing a new project that aims to deliver data at fiberoptic speeds, but without having to run any new cables or build huge cellular or microwave towers. [More]
FCC Explains Cable Set-Top Box Proposal, Everything Else It Does To Senate (Again)
By 9.15.16
Election years beget a compressed Congressional schedule. The House and Senate just got back to work in D.C. after a six-week break, and will be taking another six-week break as soon as we hit October 1 (picking up again after the election), so everything the committees want to do has to get done now. Like bringing in all five FCC commissioners for another episode of everyone’s favorite series, The FCC Explains And Defends Literally Everything It’s Doing. [More]
FCC Chair On 5G Future: “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.”
By 9.7.16
If you’re the wireless industry, you have to pay attention to the FCC. Everything it does determines everything you can do. So it’s not surprising that at the industry’s big annual event today, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler would take the stage for a keynote. And in that speech, he brought together a whole bunch of different FCC actions into one whole picture of what he hopes the communications future can be. [More]
FCC, Historic Preservation Groups Agree To Speed Up This Whole 5G Deployment Thing
By 8.9.16
For an agency that telecom companies like to lambaste as old-fashioned, out-of-touch, and wedded to the past, the FCC sure is speeding up full-tilt into the future. To wit: the Commission is streamlining a bunch of regulations to make it as easy as possible to build 5G networks as fast as possible. [More]
FCC Votes To Open Up Super-Speedy Airwaves For Future 5G Wireless Broadband
By 7.14.16
Boy, the future sounds great… at least according to the Federal Communications Commission. From medicine to manufacturing and music, the future’s got a level of autonomy and connected convenience that makes Star Trek look downright pedestrian. And it’s all down to policy that lets tech develop, of course — and so the FCC this morning voted unanimously to take the first step to open up new ultra-fast, super-speedy mobile broadband… for whenever it comes. [More]
What The Heck Is 5G Anyway, And Why Does It Matter?
By 7.13.16 — Updated: 2.22.17
Wireless companies like to throw around a lot of swanky-sounding terms to get you interested in their goods. The new hotness on everyone’s lips is 5G, which does not in fact exist yet. But it will, and the FCC today is going to vote on a proposal that will have a lot to do with getting it off the ground. So here’s everything you need to know about the future of your phone. [More]
AT&T Now Testing Drones As Flying LTE Antennae
By 7.13.16 — Updated: 10.6.16
When wireless companies prepare to handle huge events — like the upcoming political conventions and the recent papal visit to Philadelphia — they roll out mobile cell towers and sometimes make permanent infrastructure upgrades to deal with the increased data use. Now AT&T is testing out whether it can use aerial drones to bolster LTE service in these situations. [More]
AT&T Will Test 5G Service In Texas This Year; Could Be Up To 100 Times Faster Than LTE
By 2.12.16
For most people, the term “5G” is still some ineffable promise of lightning-fast wireless data that will — like the cable arrive sometime between two and five… years from now. AT&T is hoping to get a better idea of exactly what this next generation of wireless connectivity will be when it starts testing in Texas later this year. [More]
Results Of First Large-Scale 5G Wireless Test: Faster Than Google Fiber
By 10.9.15
While Verizon and other U.S. carriers are prepping to test next-generation 5G wireless service, Chinese electronics biggie Huawei says it has just completed its first “large-scale field trial” of 5G and saw download speeds that were up to several times that of current high-speed fiberoptic networks. [More]
Verizon Prepping Trials Of 5G Wireless; Could Be 50 Times Faster Than 4G
By 9.8.15
Odds are that your wireless provider’s 4G LTE service is nearly as fast — and maybe faster — than the wired Internet service to your home (if only it weren’t so expensive on a per-gigabyte basis). But Verizon says it’s getting ready to test 5G service that could blow all current wireless — and most wireline — broadband out of the water. [More]
