LAS VEGAS—As AT&T Communications CEO John Donovan explained it, “wireless is a fiercely competitive industry, but also one born of superlatives.”

Indeed, as the wireless industry continues to build the hysteria and wonderment about its upcoming 5G network standard, the infighting is intense. Case in point: AT&T rivals Verison, T-Mobile and Sprint recently took issue with AT&T's labeling of enhanced 4G LTE services in some markets as "5G Evolution."

In select locations, customers—who won’t have access to 5G smart phones until later this year—received notifications on their Android handsets that they were accessing A&T’s confusing conflation of 5G.

But these customers were actually only accessing 4G LTE Advanced network capabilities.

Speaking during an afternoon CES keynote, Donovan used the opportunity to troll AT&T’s rivals, noting that AT&T merely “got our competitors frustrated.”

AT&T’s customers need an “indicator,” he said, that the speeds they were accessing with 4G LTE Advanced were “twice as fast” as those they were getting with traditional 4G LTE.

Donovan, however, was just getting started. 

Related: AT&T Launches 5G Network—Capped at 15 GB and Topping Out at 140 Gbps

In mid-December, AT&T targeted “select businesses and consumers” in Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Raleigh, San Antonio, and Waco to receive a free Netgear Nighthawk mobile hotspot that will let them access AT&T’s seminal 5G network infrastructure.

This came nearly two months after Verizon launched fixed 5G services to “select” customers in Los Angeles, Houston, Indianapolis and Sacramento. Few consumers in those cities actually had access to Verizon’s proprietary-standards-based launch, however.

“We were proud in December that we had a real device in the store that you could buy in 12 cities,” Donovan said. “We were up first.”

LAS VEGAS—With marketing hype surrounding 5G already reaching levels unprecedented even for the wireless industry, and his company having made arguably the biggest marketing push behind the technology so far, Verizon CEO Hans Vesterberg stressed during his jam- -packed CES keynote at the Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom that 5G is going be, well, a big thing.

How big?

“It’s going to change everything,” said Vestberg, athletically clad in a tight Verizon-branded T-shirt that wouldn’t be out of place at an Apple or Google product launch.

“It’s quantum leap over 4G,” Vestberg added, in a statement he repeated no less than four times.

Did he also use the term “fourth industrial revolution,” another favorite of 5G marketers? Yup. At least three times.

Related: Cable Industry Set to Plug ’10G’ at CES

“It’s a huge opportunity for all of us and our society,” added Vestberg, the 53-year-old Swedish businessman who took over the lead executive role for the No. 1 U.S. wireless company last year.

Of course, presenting what is the top business priority for Verizon, as well as its leading competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile, on what is consumer technology’s biggest stage, CES, required Vestberg to define the market opportunity for the fifth-generation wireless technology standard in the most grandiose of terms. And credit the former Swedish Olympic Committee President with understanding the opportunity and delivering a largely effective presentation.

To accomplish this goal, he received plenty of onstage help from various Verizon technology partners.

Making a brief appearance, for example, was New York Times CEO Mark Thompson, who presented how 5G could be used for new innovative story-telling techniques. Verizon is a partner on a new 5G journalism lab within the Times newsroom. With 5G, the paper could not only enable its reporters to include interactive and immersive still 3D image and video features with their stories, Thompson explained, its marketers could better target readers based on location, time of day and “mood space”—kind of like the search and discovery tools streaming video services use to build audiences today.

There was also a longer appearance on stage by Mariah Scott, president of commercial drone company Skyward, who showed how drones were being used in conjunction with 5G as an everyday tool by Southeastern U.S. utility company Southern. Instead of sending men up perilously high to inspect utility poles and to continuously monitor the utility’s 27,000 miles of lines, a network of drones is using 5G’s instantaneous communications capabilities to deliver network operators real-time status from up high in the sky.

This was an effective demonstration of 5G’s ability to control up to 1 million devices in a 1 kilometer square mile.

Making another appearance was Dr. Christopher Morley, co-founder of Medivis, a company attempting to blend technologies like virtual and augmented reality with medicine. Morley showed how 5G could vastly improve complex medical producers, including brain surgery, allowing practitioners to “see through” patients.

Related: Verizon Opens ‘5G Experience Lab,’ Further Ups the Hype But Not Its Game

But for those of us who have observed Verizon’s initial “limited” 5G launch last year in Los Angeles, Houston, Indianapolis and Sacramento, and have wondered just where in those cities the network service might actually be available, Vestberg presented what was perhaps the most impressive demo of them all—a live 5G-enabled feed, from Houston, of an actual 5G customer

The young man’s name is Clayton, and he said he uses the service for remote work, watching streaming video and for casual gaming. 

LAS VEGAS—TiVo said Verizon has extended its technology license for the vendor’s Personalized Content Discovery solution, which it has licensed since 2013 for its 4.6 million Fios TV subscribers.

The announcement was made at CES.

Verizon will continue to use TiVo’s Personalized Content Discovery Platform conversation, search and recommendations services across set-top boxes, websites and popular streaming devices.

“Our fully-integrated approach gives operators like Verizon the ability to simplify the viewing experience and allows them to stay ahead of the competition in a rapidly evolving media landscape,” said Raghu Rau, TiVo’s interim president and CEO, in a statement.

TiVo also released study results at CES suggesting that said that operators which implemented search and discovery solutions saw a 140% improvement in churn over six months.

“In this media and device-fragmented world, identifying which viewers are watching your content—and then driving new viewers to those valuable assets—is more important than ever before,” said Walt Horstman, senior VP and general manager, advanced media and advertising, TiVo. “This analysis supports the importance of creating an impactful and data-driven entertainment experience for the consumer, while creating pathways to discovering content more easily.”

LAS VEGAS--Comcast is using the crowded confines of CES in Las Vegas to announce a new $5.99 service, which will use artificial intelligence technology to monitor potential hacks into home-based IoT equipment.

Xfinity xFi Advanced Security will be available to Comcast’s 15 million xFi homes. xFi already offers a range of usage features that lets users monitor their WiFi network, as well as do things like shut down certain devices and teenagers at predetermined times.

To scare up interest in its new service, Comcast quotes Symantec data suggesting that the number of attacks on Internet-of-things devices increased 600% from 2016-2017.

“As the digital world gets more complex, we wanted to make it simple and easy for our customers to protect their home networks. That’s why we developed xFi Advanced Security,” said Fraser Stirling, senior VP of digital home, devices and AI for Comcast Cable, in a statement. “We want to give customers digital peace of mind for the devices they already own and the confidence to expand and evolve their connected homes knowing that every new camera, voice-assisted speaker or smart thermostat they add will be protected.”

LAS VEGAS--UK satellite TV company Sky has invested an undisclosed sum in Synamedia, the video software company repurchased by private equity firm Permira Funds last year and rebranded as Synamedia.

Both Sky, and its new corporate parent, Comcast, are longtime Synamedia customers, said the Syndamedia announcement, which was made at CES in Las Vegas.

Related: Cisco's Just Sold Video Services Unit Rebranded as ‘Synamedia’

“We’ve long collaborated with the team at Synamedia to help bring great content, products and entertainment to millions of customers across Europe and this investment will help deepen our innovative partnership,” said Andrew Griffith, Sky’s group chief operating officer, in a statement.

“At a time of accelerated evolution in the pay-TV industry, this investment is a fantastic endorsement of our product vision, R&D roadmap and service portfolio from Sky, Europe’s leading media and entertainment company,” added Yves Padrines, Synamedia CEO.

Synamedia also touts AT&T, Charter, Cox, Disney, Liberty Global, Rogers, Sky, Verizon and Vodafone as clients. 

The increasingly mobile wired broadband industry continues to one-up wireless 5G, at least in the numbers game. On the heels of the announcement of work on 10G--as in gigabit, not "generation"--fixed service, the WiFi Alliance has unveiled the certification program for WiFi 6. That's the designation for next generation of WiFi announced in October.

Related: Arris Introduces New WiFi 6 System for Gigabit-Speed Homes

WiFi remains cable's chief way of getting broadband to their "wired" customers wherever they roam.

The new program is to insure that WiFi devices using the latest IEEE 802.11ax technology comply with interoperability and security standards and provide the capacity, coverage and performance of next-gen. 

The program is expected to launch in the third quarter. 

WiFi 6 products, including high-performance access points (no decaf-speeds at the local coffee shop) and laptops are being shown off at CES2019 in Las Vegas this week. WiFi 6 will accommodate HD streaming, virtual reality, interactive HD and more.

“WiFi 6 delivers features to satisfy users’ evolving connectivity needs and to enable more efficiency in the expanding places where users rely on WiFi,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, WiFi Alliance. “The sixth generation of WiFi is here today," said Vijay Nagarajan VP of the Mobile Connectivity Division at Broadcom. "Market-leading WiFi 6 routers, powered by Broadcom's chips, are already available at retail outlets including Amazon and Best Buy. 2019 will be the year of WiFi 6 as it rapidly proliferates with smart phones. The wireless experience on our mobile phones will now be ever so swift, secure, and steady as we seamlessly stream or share our digital memories."

Arris is set to launch a new WiFi system that it says can deliver multi-gigabit speeds throughout homes as large as 6,000 square feet.

Targeted for availability in the first half of 2019, and set to be previewed at next week’s CES Show in Las Vegas, the SURFboard mAX Pro Sri-Band 4x4 WiFi 6 system supports 400% faster speeds and four times the range of WiFi 5 (802.11ac), according to Arris.

While most current mesh systems commonly use dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) technology, the SURFboard mAX Pro System uses a third, 5 GHz band that enables more connected devices in a single router configuration.

Using WiFi 6, the Alexa-compatible SURFboard mAX Pro System has a usable range of up to 6,000 square feet--or up to 3,000 sure feet with a single SURFboard mAX Pro Router.

"It is the answer to consumer demand for the fastest speeds throughout the entire home,” said Evan Groat, senior VP and GM of Arris’ consumer products group. “Gigabit is becoming table stakes, and we've combined the best networking technology available to ensure that consumers can use all the speed they pay for, on every device, in every room, for years to come."

“Arris’ continued foray into WiFi 6 comes at an opportune time in the wireless market,” added Andrew Zignani, senior analyst for ABI Research, shilling for Arris in the company’s product announcement. “Specifically, the growing number of connected devices in the home is creating a surge in network traffic and driving demand for more reliable and higher-capacity WiFi.”