What’s up with… T-Mobile US & 5G, GDPR violations, BT & MWC

• T-Mobile ups the 5G ante in the US
• Telecoms tops GDPR indiscretions
• BT is latest company to steer clear of MWC21 show floor

5G supremacy, GDPR violations and the MWC21 latest top the news bill today.

• The battle for 5G supremacy in the US intensified this week as T-Mobile US followed Verizon’s pledge to invest an additional $10 billion in its 5G network during the next three years with claims that it is streets ahead of Verizon and AT&T in terms of 5G coverage and will have its 5G network build completed by the end of 2023, “just in time for others to get access to their C-band spectrum.” It added: “Competitors will have to spend billions of dollars over years to deploy the spectrum they received, all while T-Mobile has been actively putting its multi-layer spectrum portfolio to work to create the densest and broadest network to benefit American consumers and businesses… T-Mobile is already delivering 5G across more geographic coverage than AT&T and Verizon combined. Now covering 287 million people across 1.6 million square miles with 5G, T-Mobile is the only operator to have deployed dedicated mid-band spectrum for 5G and deliver on the true promise of 5G by making ultra-fast speeds averaging 300 megabits per second widely available. T-Mobile’s Ultra Capacity 5G, which uses depth of mid-band (2.5 GHz), has been rapidly expanding and is covering 125 million people today.” T-Mobile US spent $9.34 billion on C-band spectrum in the recent auction, while Verizon spent $45.5 billion and now needs to raise extra funds to pay for it. For more on the T-Mobile US announcement, see this press release. 
• When it comes to antitrust and other regulatory corrective action, it’s important to remember that telcos are tech giants too and quite likely to find themselves in the dock along with Facebook, Google and Amazon in the fullness of time. Difficult to believe? If you want some sort of index of bad behaviour, take a look at the history of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). According to an article in Compliance Week, in 2018 when GDPR was initiated, the expectation was that it would nail the big tech giants. In fact they’ve only copped six fines so far. Meanwhile, the telecoms industry is the leading naughty sector regarding privacy breaches under the GDPR, clocking up an embarrassing 69 violations. 
• BT has decided not to send any staff to MWC21 in Barcelona this June, reports Light Reading. The move follows news that Ericsson, Nokia and Oracle are among the companies that have decided not to attend in person again this year. (See For MWC, this looks like 2020 all over again.)
• Big post-pandemic changes appear to be rippling through the world of work with consequent implications for DSPs that aspire to provide offices of every size with connectivity - from bedroom corner, to multi-story tower block. Daily office occupancy levels across Europe are increasing, but by 2025 will still be 30% down on 2019, according to IDC, which also reveals that in 2020 the number of home-based office workers increased by 17.7 times compared to 2019. So what’s happening?  It’s all a bit complex, say the researchers, who explain they’ve been basing their projections on the intentions of companies to return employees to the office as well as national government statistics and macroeconomic forecasts. What emerges is a complex picture with an initial return due to the use of vaccines but not to the levels of occupancy seen pre-Covid-19. Occupancy then declines from the peak, but at a faster rate than before the crisis. This trend is driven by a dramatic increase in flexible working, reinforced by the developments during lockdown, i.e., availability of homeworking equipment, and productivity benefits seen when working from home, neither of which were not present before the pandemic. Another factor influencing reduced office occupancy is related to the cost savings associated with home working, as opposed to renting office floorspace. Read more...

- The staff, TelecomTV