WCA November 2020

Telecom news Verizon, through subsidiaries, owns the US landing stations and 100 per cent of the US segments of the CB-1 and Gemini Bermuda systems. Regarding the SCCN, MFS Globenet owns the US cable landing stations in Morro Bay (California) and Nedonna Beach (Oregon), and 100 per cent of the US segment of the cable network, in addition to a 10.01 per cent indirect stake in the non-US segments of the cable network. Restructuring included the elimination of multiple companies in the Verizon ownership chain, as well as the conversion of certain companies from corporations to limited liability companies, and the reassignment of MCI Communications Corporation’s 13.43 per cent interest in the Japan- US Cable (JUS) system to Verizon Business. The Americas-1 consortium has amended an application for a new cable landing licence to allow the continued operation of the Americas-1 cable for an additional 25-year term. The interest in the Americas-1 system held by Sprint Communications Company has been acquired by the Atlantic Tele- communications Operating Company (ATOC), increasing ATOC’s stake to 8.25 per cent, and Sprint has withdrawn from the application. Global 5G roaming for US/South Korea travellers Verizon Wireless has announced its successful completion of 5G roaming trials, becoming the first US operator with a “commercially ready” 5G global roaming service. Customers travelling between the USA and South Korea, using a compatible device, will be able to take advantage of 5G service benefits. The successful trials for voice, data and text messaging were conducted on the live production 5G network in South Korea with a prototype device using dual frequencies. The 5G device, which can access 5G services in the USA using mmWave spectrum, accessed 5G on 3.5GHz spectrum in South Korea. Average speeds during the trial were 252 Mbps (download) and 119 Mbps (upload).

Call for EV manufacturers to help secure the lithium industry

Paul Graves, chief executive officer of lithium producer Livent Corporation, has called for the electric vehicle industry to pay more for lithium, “in order to spur investment and prevent future supply crunches” of the essential metal. Consumer demand for EVs was expected to increase sharply this year, but the coronavirus pandemic slowed both sales and production, causing an over-supply of lithium. Prices have fallen more than 10 per cent in recent months resulting in some producers, including Livent and Albemarle Corporation, suspending their planned expansion projects. However, the tempting lower price has encouraged EV manufacturers to renegotiate supply agreements while demanding higher production. Mr Graves called the behaviour “voodoo economics”, adding, “If you don’t have a rational conversation with me about what the [lithium] price needs to be for me to invest, then I don’t invest.” Livent halted a multi-year expansion project in Argentina, where restarting will be an expensive and long-winded process: “It [will] be several years before any new production [comes] online,” Mr Graves said. “If every EV company took its 2023 plans … to the lithium market today, they’d probably get only about 15 per cent of their needed supply.” With both battery makers and auto manufacturers looking to strike deals with lithium producers while the prices are low, Mr Graves believes it is in everyone’s interests to commit to higher prices for long-term contracts. “Otherwise, when this does turn, and it will, this will flip the other way and lithium producers will demand higher prices,” he said.

Illustrations: BigStockPhoto.com • Artist: Asmati

Bid procedures for December 5G C-band auction have been finalised by the FCC

By June, the FCC had secured agreements from satellite operators Eutelsat, Intelsat, SES, Star One and Telesat to accelerate the relocation in return for special payments. These companies must clear 120 MHz of spectrum in 46 PEAs by 5 December 2021. In a second phase, they must clear the lower 120 MHz in the remain- ing PEAs, plus an additional 180 MHz nationwide, by 5 December 2023. Bidding procedures have also been finalised for two “clock phase” categories of generic blocks in the 46 PEAs, and an “assignment phase” for winning bidders for blocks subject to the first early clearing timeline. Changes at the top after restructuring Following an internal restructuring, Verizon Communications, on behalf of its wholly owned indirect subsidiary MFS Globenet, has notified the FCC of the formal transfer of control of MFS Globenet’s interests in the Challenger Bermuda-1 (CB-1) cable system, the Gemini Bermuda system and the Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN).

The US FCC has established final application and bidding procedures for Auction 107 of 280 MHz of C-band 3.7 GHz spectrum for 5G and other advanced wireless services. Scheduled for December 2020, the auction will offer 5,684 new flexible- use overlay licences based on Partial Economic Areas (PEAs) for spectrum in the 3.7 to 3.98 GHz band, ensuring assignment to auction winners of contiguous spectrum blocks, allowing wide channel bandwidths that support 5G deployment. In February, the FCC adopted rules for the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz C-band, which allocated the lower 280 MHz (3.7 to 3.98 GHz) band for flexible terrestrial wireless services (with a 20 MHz guard band, 3.98 to 4 GHz), and required existing satellite operators to repack their operations from the band’s entire 500 MHz into the upper 200 MHz (4 to 4.2 GHz).

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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2020