News of Note—BT’s 5G plans, AT&T's San Jose deal, Verizon's ThingSpace, and more

Here are some other stories we’re following:

> Under the new small cell agreement between AT&T and the city of San Jose, the operator will pay the city $5 million over 15 years for access to locations like light poles for the deployment of around 170 small cells. Light Reading article

> Qatar operator Ooredoo said it is the first operator in the world to launch a live 5G network on the 3.5 GHz spectrum band. Release

> Verizon announced its new ThingSpace Ready program, with partners including Quectel, Sequans, Bittium, Mobilogix G+D Mobile, that the carrier said will “help get cellular IoT solutions to market quickly, reliably and cost effectively.” Release

> A top financier at Benchmark called SoftBank’s Vision Fund “the most powerful investor in our world.” Economist article

> MVNO Mint Mobile describes itself in a new ad campaign as the “Dollar Shave Club of wireless.” Campaign article

> T.J. Kennedy, the former president of FirstNet, and Jason Karp, the former chief counsel of FirstNet, founded the new Public Safety Network consultancy firm. Release

> The Supreme Court issued a ruling that paves the way for states to allow betting on sports. AP Tweet

> U.K. telecom group BT says it will launch commercial 5G services before the end of next year. RCR Wireless article

> An Ericsson report shows that mobile service providers can leapfrog to a zero-touch customer experience future by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and analytics. Release

> Swedish operators Tele2 and Telia want to gradually phase out their joint venture Sunab, which operates their shared 3G network, to hasten the transition to 4G. Mobile World Live article

> Spirit has announced that it has partnered with satellite internet provider Thales to launch Wi-Fi service on all of its planes by summer 2019. Pocketnow.com article