Converge! Network Digest: C-Band

Showing posts with label C-Band. Show all posts

Monday, December 5, 2022

Verizon's C-band rollout is ahead of schedule

Monday, December 05, 2022 C-Band, Verizon

Verizon now covers more than 175 million people with their ultra fast, ultra reliable 5G Ultra Wideband service, and will offer nationwide 5G Ultra Wideband in Q1 2023.

Verizon confirmed that its ongoing C-Band rollout is a full 13 months ahead of the original schedule.

Less than 21 months after announcing the results of the FCC’s C-band auction and after securing early access to an additional 30 markets this year, Verizon accelerated its build plan and surpassed its goal of reaching 175 million people covered by the end of 2022, a month ahead of schedule.

“Our customers don’t stand still and neither does our network. Today, more than one out of every two Americans now have access to 5G Ultra Wideband. We know our customers rely on our service every day and we work for them – continuously enhancing, expanding and improving our wireless network,” said Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon. “And as proud as I am to have crossed this milestone, I am equally proud of the way we are building our network – with the most advanced technologies, industry leading security, a robust fiber underpinning and a robust and varied spectrum portfolio. We are building this right. We are building this as a platform for innovation for years to come.”

Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband supports download speeds up to 1 Gbps.

In addition to providing greater coverage, especially in rural and suburban areas, Verizon will also enhance capacity by activating 100 MHz of C-Band spectrum in many markets, a significant step up from the 60 MHz of spectrum available when deployment first began. Once all of its licensed spectrum is made available, Verizon will have up to 200 MHz of C-Band spectrum deployed in many markets, which will provide exceptional speed and capacity.

Verizon is continuing to deploy 5G on mmWave spectrum in areas with significantly dense populations such as venues, stadiums, arenas, airports, major metro areas, office complexes, etc. mmWave will also continue to be used for private network deployments.

Verizon also highlighed progress in fully deploying the 5G core with its proprietary cloud platform built specifically for telco workloads, advancing the fiber network to handle exponential increases in data traffic, continuing massive virtualization of the network to add programmability and flexibility into the network, using artificial intelligence to drive reliability and performance, continuing to develop edge computing capabilities to drive down latency, and continuing to advance antenna configurations to drive speed and efficiency.

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-continues-deploy-5g-ultra-wideband-faster

Ericsson and Verizon sign multi-year $8.3 billion 5G deal

Thursday, July 15, 2021 Ericsson, Verizon

Ericsson confirmed a multi-year 5G supply agreement with Verizon valued at $8.3 billion.Under the agreement, Verizon will deploy Ericsson's 5G MIMO C-band, low-band and millimeter wave (mmWave) solutions to enhance and expand Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband coverage, network performance and user experience. Ericsson's technology solutions, including Massive MIMO, Ericsson Spectrum Sharing and Ericsson Cloud RAN, complement the high-performing Ericsson...

Verizon begins C-band rollout with Ericsson and Samsung

Monday, April 19, 2021 Ericsson, Samsung, Verizon

Verizon confirmed that the installation of C-band equipment from Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co. is now underway. Ericsson is providing its Antenna-Integrated Radio (AIR) product, which features a massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) architecture with Ericsson Uplink Booster and advanced beamforming technology. Samsung is also supplying Massive MIMO radios and fully virtualized RAN (vRAN) solutions.Verizon secured an...

Verizon activates C-band spectrum

Wednesday, January 19, 2022 Verizon

Verizon activated C-band spectrum to boost its 5G Ultra Wideband network, which is now available to more than 100 million people in 1,700-plus cities around the nation.“This massive launch will put incredible speeds, reliability and security in the hands of our customers and amplifies our offering of reliable home and business broadband options to more places around the country, well ahead of the commitment we made last year,” said Hans Vestberg,...

Verizon serves nearly 48% of its cell sites with owned fiber

Monday, September 12, 2022 Verizon

Verizon now connects nearly 48% of its cell sites with its own deployed fiber optic cables and is on track to reach about 50% by the end of this year.In June Verizon announced that data traffic on its 5G Ultra Wideband network had already increased 249%, and it expects continued increases as more customers adopt the new technology and begin to experience the robust capabilities and performance of 5G Ultra Wideband. Verizon has also announced...

Nokia demos 5G C-Band network in Texas

Sunday, June 21, 2020 C-Band, Nokia

Nokia completed a series of Over-the-Air (OTA) 5G NR (new radio) trials in C-band spectrum, in Dallas, Texas, achieving peak throughput speeds of over 1 Gbps.

The demonstration used Nokia’s AirScale 5G base station equipment in 100 MHz of spectrum at 3.75 GHz with a 4x4 MIMO and configuration in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode combined with Nokia’s Core network. During drive testing, Nokia monitored network performance and demonstrated that the handovers successfully happened between C-Band base stations as expected. The connection and performance was stable throughout the entire test, highlighting the robustness of the solution and its readiness for commercial implementation.

Nokia says its C-Band solution is ready for commercial deployment and notes that the U.S. will hold a spectrum auction for the C-band in December with network deployments expected in the first half of 2021.

Nokia is also offering U.S. Carriers the option of deploying C-Band with its 5G AirScale Cloud RAN solution in vRAN2.0 configuration, in which the whole baseband will be in Cloud connected to the radio via an ORAN compliant eCPRI 7.2x interface.

Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia, commented: “The mobile industry is dependent on the allocation of new spectrum to increase capacity and deliver enhanced mobile broadband services. This test, in the C-band, is significant because it proves that we have a solution ready-to-go following the completion of the spectrum auctions in the U.S. later this year. We are already working with all major U.S. carriers and look forward to strengthening our relationship with them further by deploying C-band and delivering incredible 5G experiences to business and subscribers across the country.”

SES and Telesat support FCC’s C-band Order

Wednesday, March 04, 2020 C-Band, FCC, Satellite

SES and Telesat, as founding members of the C-Band Alliance, applauded the FCC's final C-band Report and Order.

"We congratulate the Commission on striking the right balance to ensure accelerated access to the spectrum with appropriate incentives, providing an effective transition framework, and adequately protecting critical satellite services for customers and earth station operators."

FCC approves C-Band spectrum rules

Sunday, March 01, 2020 Auction, C-Band, FCC, Satellite

The Federal Communications Commission voted to approve new rules to accelerate the auction and transfer of a wide swath of 3.5 GHz spectrum from the satellite industry for new uses, including 5G.

The 280 megahertz of mid-band spectrum will be made available via a public auction.

FCC approves C-Band spectrum rules

Sunday, March 01, 2020 Auction, C-Band, FCC, Satellite

Within the 3.7-4.2 GHz band, the FCC has is allocating the 3.7-4.0 GHz portion of the band for mobile use and 280 megahertz (3.7-3.98 GHz band) will be auctioned by the FCC for wireless services in the contiguous United States. Another 20 megahertz (3.98-4.0 GHz) will serve as a guard band while existing satellite operations will be repacked into the upper 200 megahertz of the band (4.0-4.2 GHz).

Satellite operators will be able to receive accelerated relocation payments of $9.7 billion if they meet accelerated clearing milestones.

FCC expects to conduct an auction beginning on December 8, 2020.

In a statement, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai writes: "With respect to this principle of revenue for the federal government, it’s important to make a couple of points about accelerated relocation payments. First, they will be made by wireless carriers, not the FCC and not the American taxpayer. And second, to the extent they impact the proceeds of the auction at all, they are likely to increase those proceeds. That’s because without a strong incentive for satellite operators to cooperate, it will take years longer to clear this spectrum, dramatically reducing the value of this spectrum opportunity to wireless bidders. It’s like repainting your house before you sell it; yes, there are costs to doing that, but the costs are more than offset by the higher sales price. And our conservative approach here means the costs of accelerated relocation are easily outweighed by the benefits to the Treasury (not to mention the public at large)..."

"But as to its timing, there are some who argue that we should wait—indefinitely. They complain that we are refusing to sit on our hands and wait for Congress to legislate. It’s at once amusing and astounding that some making this criticism are the very same people who have previously complained that the agency isn’t moving quickly enough on mid-band spectrum. Indeed, by now, it’s become a tired refrain: Demand action on mid-band spectrum, but vote against putting 2.5 GHz spectrum to work for American consumers. Demand action on mid-band spectrum, but vote against making the 3.5 GHz band a testbed for 5G. Demand action on mid-band spectrum, but vote against letting New T-Mobile put underused spectrum to work in rural America. Demand action on mid-band spectrum, but vote against every single one of the infrastructure reforms needed to enable that spectrum to be used for 5G..."

So let me be clear regarding this tepid call to change course and sit still. For those waiting with bated breath for that favorite Washington catchphrase “the U-turn,” I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to. This Chairman’s not for turning. The goal of leading the world in 5G is too urgent, the need to close the digital divide too pressing for us to put off action indefinitely. The time to act is now. And we are acting."