n TECHNOLOGY
“It’s going to be difficult doing 5G at
these frequency bands. How far can
the signal go with all the trees?
Distances are much shorter than I
would’ve imagined.”
— Earl Lum, founder, EJL Wireless Research
by AT&T Fiber to 11 million locations, including more than
175,000 sites in Sacramento. This service boasts speeds
of 1,000 mbps, more than triple the typical speeds of 300
mbps for Verizon’s 5G Home (up to 940 mbps, depending
on location).
Louis Stewart, Sacramento’s chief innovation officer
and a member of Comstock’s Editorial Board, says AT&T
had approached the city about 5G, but at the time officials
were still working out the deal with Verizon.
“We had to push pause for a second to make sure the
contract was fully executed and had begun implementa-
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tion before opening the door to other providers,” Stewart
says.
Officials wouldn’t say if the city was pursuing any oth-
er providers for 5G, but said Sacramento is now “open for
business” for wireless developments with all carriers.
In 2016, before Verizon was in the picture, Sacramento
made a deal with 5 Bars Communities, which was assigned in
2017 to XG Communities, an Irvine-based provider of wireless
asset marketing and management for cities and municipali-
ties. The agreement called for XG to create a database of city
assets that could be potential sites for small cells and to ne-
gotiate deals with other parties, such as telecommunication
service providers. In April 2018, XG filed a complaint, claiming
the city violated this contract by allowing Verizon to use city
assets for small cells without going through XG.
In October 2018, a Superior Court judge ruled in favor of
XG. But the city filed an appeal, which is under review. With
the legal issue unresolved, XG CEO John Clarey says only that
his company is still providing its services to Sacramento and
has since developed hundreds of sites representing all four
carriers: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.
“We look forward to affirmation of the judge’s order,” Clar-
ey wrote in an email, “and continuing to bring next generation
wireless to the city.”