FCC To Explore Future Use of Spectrum in Bands Above 24 GHz
The FCC will take up an NPRM on high-frequency spectrum at its Oct. 22 meeting, Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday. The FCC approved a notice of inquiry on the topic at its October meeting (see 1410170048). The NPRM is expected to ask a series of questions that emerged as industry responded to the NOI, industry and agency officials said.
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The NPRM "is an important step toward creating an environment for this next generation of wireless to develop, take hold, and explode across the United States,” Wheeler said Thursday in a blog post. “This NPRM proposes a framework for flexible spectrum use rules for bands above 24 GHz, including for mobile broadband use. Promoting flexible, dynamic spectrum use has been the bedrock that has helped the United States become a world leader in wireless.”
Wheeler promised in an earlier blog post to release the NPRM, which builds on the NOI (see 1508030071). Wheeler noted that at the upcoming World Radiocommunications Conference, one agenda item will set the bands to be studied at the following WRC, WRC-19. “The bands we propose in this NPRM are consistent with the U.S. position, and we are committed to working with both domestic and international partners on developing rules for these bands and on conducting technical sharing and compatibility studies,” he said.
"It’s great to see the FCC work on developing service rules for spectrum in the millimeter-wave bands," said Fred Campbell of the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology. "This is an area where the FCC can have a positive impact on innovation and investment."
“It's a good step forward,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge and a member of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. “It's also a good opportunity to see if the licensed carriers are re-evaluating their approach to spectrum. Traditionally, wireless carriers have objected to any kind of allocation to unlicensed.” If there is general support around a proposal that includes both a licensed and an unlicensed component, “that will be a very positive sign,” he said.
A framework for access to very high-frequency bands “remains very abstract since we don’t even know what 5G will really be when it grows up, or exactly what unlicensed access would be most useful,” said Michael Calabrese, also a member of CSMAC. “All we know is that more spectrum access is good and that in the future most mobile connectivity will be high-capacity and small cell, which will for the most part allow the incorporation of very high-frequency, wide-channel bands despite their rather limited propagation characteristics.” Calabrese is also director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute.