Pandemic Pushback in Vermont (OP/ED)
June 15, 2020To Mask Or Not To Mask? (2VR SCIENCE)
July 1, 2020Publisher’s Note: Important information about 5G and Vermont here. Please consider getting involved in your town. See screen shot at the bottom for all vital links. Begin with award-winning Vermont journalist Allison Teague’s interview with attorney and 5G wireless director Dafna Tachover. What is 5G? Do you know? Asked and answered by Dafna whose experience comes from a background with Israeli Defence as Commander of Telecommunications and Computers, where she learned firsthand what wireless technology can do to a body, and what 5G actually means.The confusion around wireless technology’s latest ‘iteration,’ 5G, muddies the discussion, so we try to parse it out here in a way that is understandable. Teague talks about the CHD’s lawsuit against the FCC, and we get into some of the health aspects of life’s exposure. As always, do your own homework. Share if you like the video, make sure to like and subscribe if you do. And then please read and get involved in 5G-Free-Vermont. See the letter and links below. Thanks for your support – it is important. Here’s an AT+T update for the Vermont telecommunications “rollout.”, as well as the latest US mapping on 5G rollout here.
Dear Vermont Activists,
5G Free VT is a coalition of Vermont environmental, wireless- and 5G-opposition groups and individuals. It is open to anyone who agrees that Vermont should remain/become 5G free, and we welcome your participation.
5G Free VT has a Vermont-focused website (https://5GFreeVT.wordpress.com), dedicated to science-based information on 5G development and politics. It includes an easy-to-read and understand tri-fold flier (with references) under the tab “What You Can Do”, for downloading to print.
Enough is known about the biological effects of radiofrequency/microwave radiation to credibly fear the deployment of this experiment on planet Earth, with millions of antennas to be located around our homes and businesses, and with tens of thousands of low-orbit 5G satellites expected to be launched (538 of them already in orbit, 60 more on 6/23). Where is critical discussion of this plan, in the media and in government?
You may be aware that Vermont is currently going all out to bring “broadband” throughout the State. While the need to help rural areas have easy access to high speed internet is essential, there is no discussion about whether that would be accomplished solely via fiber optic cable to the house (the safest and fastest way to do it) or to speed up the development of 5G wireless, which has not been proven to be safe and provides often inferior service compared to fiber optics. This distinction should be discussed by Vermont decision-makers NOW!
At this point, while there still exists a great deal of ignorance about the potential dangers of 5G technology, more and more people are becoming aware of these dangers, and groups around the world have been organizing to try to stop its deployment. For example, a group called 5G Free California offers a lot of excellent information on their website, www.5GFreeCalifornia.org including promising legal fights and brilliant legal suggestions for municipalities. In another effort to stop the satellites, Dr. Arthur Firstenberg makes important points in an essay regarding 5G, coronavirus, and more, worth a read at: https://www.cellphonetaskforce.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/The-Evidence-Mounts.pdf.
5G Free VT is currently embarking on a state-wide initiative to educate and petition local Town governments to petition the State government to DO SOMETHING. Thus far, the State has taken the position that they are powerless. But because of “Dillon’s Law”, local Vermont municipalities are not able to enact local protective measures, leaving it to the State by default. Local municipalities can, however, INSIST that our elected representatives DO SOMETHING. Therefore, it is up to citizen activists and citizens within each town to get their respective Town governments to DO SOMETHING to influence State officials.
5G Free VT has come up with a “Master Plan” to, hopefully, light a fire under local Town governments, to compel them to appeal to the State. We have created ready-to-use documents, with explicit suggestions, for Towns to forward to the State Government if they wish.
We are hoping that you, as activists, will be willing to help start this campaign for a 5G free Vermont. Please see the documents attached for your convenience, and the other linked documents, which are self-explanatory. If you agree to help, and to be part of this coalition, please let us knowby emailing us at: 5G-FreeVT@protonmail.com . Please send us your name, group name if you have one, your Vermont town, contact information, and any other relevant information you’d like to share. You may use this email address for any questions specific to this campaign. Between this initiative and the TelecomVermont list we have been using, we hope to build a strong and active coalition to counter 5G development in Vermont.
Thank you for your help in ensuring a 5G free Vermont!
Sincerely,
The 5GFreeVT team
Deployment of 5G in USA – as of July 2020
2.4.7. USA: all major players have launched 5G services
Auctions for 28 and 24 GHz spectrum ended in January 2019 and May 2019, respectively. The upper 37 GHz, the 39 GHz and the 47 GHz auction began on time on December 10th, 2019. The bidding phase, or clock phase, ended on 5 March 2020 with gross bids totalling 7.6 billion USD.
Verizon
Before launching 5G services, Verizon performed several 5G trials. It launched 5G home service in October 2018 and 5G mobile services in April 2019. Since then, Verizon has increased its nationwide coverage.
Verizon 5G FWA service
Verizon 5G Home service was launched on 1 October 2018 in limited areas of four US cities (Houston, Sacramento, Indianapolis, Los Angeles). The service is also available other test location, including Atlanta, Brockton, Dallas, Bernardsville, Denver, Ann Arbor, Seattle, Miami, and Washington, DC. At launch, the service was charged at USD 70 per month (USD 50/month for existing customers). There are no annual contracts, no equipment charges and no data caps. For the first three months, an Apple TV or a Google Chromecast Ultra was offered for free (USD 40 after the first three months). At launch, speeds ranged from 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps, depending on location.
Verizon 5G Home customers have no data caps and can expect speeds ranging from 300 Mbps to up to around 1 Gbps, depending on location.
Verizon 5G mobile services
Verizon launched its 5G NR in selected areas of Chicago and Minneapolis in April 2019. This launch coincided with the offering of the new 5G moto mod, which was exclusive to Verizon. The 5G mobile network was available in about 34 U.S. cities as of April 2020. At launch, the company’s 5G service plan came with unlimited data, available for USD 10 a month (with the first three months free) with any Verizon unlimited plan.
AT&T
Since early 2017, AT&T has been performing fixed wireless & mobile 5G trials in Austin, TX, Waco, TX, Kalamazoo, MI and South Bend, IN. The company launched its 5G E mobile services in selected cities in December 2018. In April 2020, the company had rollout out its 5G network in the 850 MHz band in over 190 markets, covering about 120 million people. AT&T’s faster mm-wave network was launched for consumer access in March 2020, offering coverage in parts of 35 cities At launch, the service was available with the Nighthawk hotspot device. It is charged at 499 USD upfront and a monthly USD 70 payment for 15 GB of data.
Sprint
Sprint launched 5G services in May 2019 in three cities (Atlanta, Dallas Fort Worth, and Kansas City). In July 2019, it extended services to Chicago and in September 2019 to selected parts of Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington DC.
The service was initially available on two devices, the LG V50 ThinQ and the HTC 5G Hub. For USD 80 per month, Sprint’s Unlimited Premium launch tariff was charged at 80 USD per month at launch.
The Sprint 5G Non-Standalone network is using 2.5 GHz spectrum and massive 128-antenna MIMO equipment to be able to operate 4G at the same time. The use of lower frequencies will allow Sprint to increase faster its coverage and at lower costs.
T-Mobile USA
T-Mobile USA signed in August 2018 two USD 3.5bn contracts with Ericsson and Nokia to support its nationwide 5G network deployment. Under the terms of the contract, Ericsson will provide T-Mobile with its 5G NR hardware and software, as well as Ericsson’s digital services solutions.
In July 2019, T-Mobile USA pre-launched its 5G services in selected parts of six US cities (Atlanta, Cleveland, New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Las Vegas) using 28 GHz frequencies.
On December 2, 2019 T-Mobile switched on its 5G network using the 600 MHz frequency band. The deployment is country’s first nationwide 5G network, covering more than 200 million people and more than 5 000 cities and towns across the country. It should however be noted that data rates available with the 600 MHz spectrum alone is lower than the data rates provided by 4G services.
T-Mobile USA and Sprint Merger
Sprint and T-Mobile officially merged into one company in April 2020. T-Mobile started to expand its network with spectrum from Sprint in the 2.5 GHz band and opened nationwide 5G access for Sprint customers network in the 600 MHz and mm-wave bands. Customers in New York are the first to have access to 5G in the low-, mid- and mm-wave bands.3.5. International developments/trials
USA, Japan, South Korea and China are the leading countries in terms of 5G readiness. Several Gulf countries claim to the firsts to have launched 5G networks:
USA: AT&T and Verizon launched mobile commercial services in early 2019. Sprint launched in May 2019 and T-Mobile USA in December 2019.
3.5.1. USA
The four main players have already launched 5G.
Spectrum for 5G was identified in July 2016 by the FCC (10.85 GHz in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz), 37 GHz (37-38.6 GHz) and 39 GHz (38.6-40 GHz) bands, and in an unlicensed band at 64-71 GHz). 24 and 28 GHz spectrum was auctioned in the first half 2019. The FCC auctioned the upper bands in early 2020.
A specific fund for 5G was opened in 2016.
5G spectrum
The FCC voted in 2016 for the release and development of nearly 11 GHz of high-frequency spectrum intended to be used for fixed and mobile broadband bandwidth uses: 3.85 GHz to be assigned under licences in the bands 27.5-28.35 GHz and 37-40 GHz and 7 GHz, under general authorization, in the band 64-71 GHz.
July 2016: the FCC made available a total of 10.85 GHz in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz), 37 GHz (37-38.6 GHz) and 39 GHz (38.6-40 GHz) bands, and in an unlicenced band at 64-71 GHz.
November 2017: the FCC made available an additional 1700 MHz of high band spectrum for flexible terrestrial wireless use in the 24 GHz (24.25-24.45/24.74-25.25 GHz) and 47 GHz (47.2-48.2 GHz) bands.
March 2018: the FCC announced that it would like to held auctions of the 28 GHz and 24 GHz bands by the end of the year (November 2018 for the 28 GHz auction).
June 2018: the FCC voted to proceed with making the upper 26 GHz (25.25–27.5 GHz) and 42 GHz (42–42.5 GHz) bands available for 5G services, while examining further aspects of the bands already in the 5G pipeline. The auction for the 28 GHz spectrum (27.5-28.35 GHz) and 24 GHz spectrum (24.25-24.45-24.75-25.25 GHz) is scheduled to begin on November 14, 2018. July 2018: the FCC is considering options for up to 500 MHz of spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz frequencies. Satellite companies currently use the frequencies.
28 GHz auctions results:
The FCC’s auction of residual 28 GHz16 (27.5-28.35 GHz) frequencies began on November 14th, 2018. The auction closed on January 24th, 2019 when a round ended without bids placed.
According to the FCC Auction Bidding System Public Reporting System (PRS), winning bids reached 702.6 MUSD on Jan. 24th, 2019, after 38 days of bidding and 176 rounds completed. The residual licences were sold on a county basis. Two blocks of 425 MHz were available.
24 GHz spectrum (24.25–24.45 GHz + 24.75–25.25 GHz) auctions started in March 2019 and ended on May 28, 2019. 24 GHz frequencies were auctioned in 100 MHz blocks and sold by partial economic areas (PEAs, PEAs are larger than counties). In total, the auction raised 2.02 billion USD.
The Federal Communications Commission announced the conclusion of Auction 103 in March 2020. This is its third auction of 5G suitable millimetre wave spectrum to date. The process started in December 2019 and involved frequencies in the upper 37GHz, 39GHz, and 47GHz bands, offering a total of 3,400 MHz of spectrum. The auction bid reached 7.6 billion USD (6.9 billion EUR). The price per MHz per capita for 10 years is 0.06 cEUR. The amount is much inferior to the price of past auctions in the 24 and 28 GHz bands.
Verizon spent 1.6 billion USD (1.45 billion EUR) on 4,490 licenses in 411 areas. AT&T dropped nearly 1.2 billion USD (1.09 billion EUR) on 3,267 licenses in 411 areas. T-Mobile spent a total of 873 million USD (793 million EUR) in the auction and won 2,384 spectrum licenses covering 399 areas. Sprint bid almost 114 million USD (103 million EUR) on 127 licenses in 38 areas.
The FCC is planning two more spectrum auctions in 2020. They include a CBRS 3.5GHz auction that is planned to begin in June 2020 and another C-band auction that is expected to begin in December 2020.5G trials
Verizon
Since 2017, Verizon has been testing mm-wave 5G services in 11 cities (in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Bernardsville, Brockton, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Sacramento, Seattle, and Washington, DC.). Verizon demonstrated a video 5G call at the 2018 Super Bowl and a NR data lab transmission with Nokia and Qualcomm in February 2018. In June 2018, Verizon tested two-way data transmission and multi-carrier aggregation and very high speeds outdoors. In August 2018, Verizon succeeded in transmitting a 5G signal to a moving vehicle.
In August 2018, Verizon and Nokia achieved a transmission of 5G NR signal to a receiver situated in a moving vehicle using spectrum in the 28 GHz band, in a trial carried out in New Jersey. In September 2018,
Verizon, in partnership with Nokia, completed the transmission of a 5G mobile signal to a test van in Washington. The test was carried out with Verizon’s mm-wave spectrum and 5G network core, along with Nokia’s 5G radio equipment.
16 The 28 GHz band had already been assigned. This auction assigned residual spectrum.
In September 2018, Verizon successfully transmitted a 5G signal on a commercial 5G NR network in Washington DC and Minneapolis on prototype devices.
AT&T
In November 2018, AT&T showcased its first mobile 5G device using mm-wave spectrum as well as the ‘first mm-wave mobile 5G browsing session’ in Waco, Texas. The described device is a NETGEAR Nighthawk based on Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem.
AT&T also achieved tests of wireless 5G data transfer over mm-wave spectrum bands, via a mobile form factor device. The trial was carried out in Waco, Texas.
Sprint
The company started trials in 2017 in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. In June 2016, Sprint demonstrated a 5G trial using 73 GHz frequencies.
In May 2017 Sprint, SoftBank and vendor Qualcomm Technologies announced an agreement to collaborate on the development of the 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standard for 2.5GHz spectrum.
T-Mobile
The operator completed with Nokia in June 2018, ‘the nation’s first bi-directional over-the-air 5G data session on a 3GPP-compliant 5G New Radio system’. It conducted with a user equipment simulator and Nokia’s 3GPP-compliant high-capacity 5G solution in the 28GHz frequency.
AT&T demonstrated with Nokia in November 2018, a 5G data transmission using its 600 MHz spectrum.
In January 2019, the company teamed up with Ericsson and Intel in Las Vegas to make a 5G data call and video call on a live 600MHz network. T-Mobile also accomplished a tri-band 5G video call with three users on different spectrum bands: 600MHz, 28GHz and 39GHz.–
Joel M. Moskowitz, Ph.D., Director
Center for Family and Community Health
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley
Electromagnetic Radiation Safety
Website: https://www.saferemr.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaferEMR
Twitter: @berkeleyprc
