Howard Buskirk

Recommendations based on discussions at a Silicon Flatirons conference last week will include a finding that the current process for addressing spectrum conflicts in the U.S. is working for the most part, said former NTIA Administrator David Redl Saturday, during a conference wrap-up. The conference is expected to lead to release of a report. Other speakers said interference issues will become more difficult.

Open radio access networks and network disaggregation are driving the need for automation, said Ruth Brown, Heavy Reading principal analyst-mobile networks and 5G, during a Light Reading webinar Tuesday. “Disaggregation has happened in all areas across the 5G networks,” she said: “We’re able to avoid vendor lock-in,” Brown said. “We’re able to share network resources, and also it supports a lot of flexibility.” Network slicing, which allows carriers to create multiple unique logical and virtualized networks within their network, requires built-in automation, Brown said. “We want to allow an operator to rapidly provision a network slice, to be able to configure this network slice and to be able to adapt as we get fluctuating demands,” she said. Automation is also more important for edge networks, she said. Automation “would allow people to place applications or functions in the correct locations at the edge of the network,” she said. The benefits of virtualization emerge only when the radio access network is virtualized, said Sandeep Sharma, global head-5G/RAN/ORAN at India-based Tech Mahindra. “We see more and more use cases getting automated in an open environment,” he said. ORAN and cloud technologies are well-developed, but the biggest challenge is a “lack of understanding” among providers, he said. Open networks are complex and automation is “a must to have to achieve all the efficiencies,” he said. Telcos are looking for cost savings and flexibility as they consider ORAN and moving more operations to the cloud, said Srihari Mallavarapu, Intel ecosystem development leader. Carriers “believe that by bringing in more players” it will help them cut costs, he said. With current networks making any changes “takes a long time -- they can’t do much innovation,” he said. ORAN requires automation, since the network itself is disaggregated, with hardware separate from software and multiple vendors involved, Mallavarapu said. Managing the network manually “will cause lots of trouble, and it’s almost impossible,” he said.

GSMA expects eight more 5G launches this year, with 5G networks hitting 420 worldwide by 2025, said Julie Ssali, senior analyst at GSMA Intelligence, during a Mobile World Live webinar Monday. Ssali warned that most of the networks are built on top of an older-generation core. There are 218 operators offering 5G in 81 markets, but GSMA counts only 27 5G stand-alone networks, she said. “The one key value to growth in this market is the deployment of 5G stand-alone networks,” she said. The biggest shift GSMA sees is toward edge computing, which does require 5G stand-alone to really see the benefits for business customers, including “advantage functionalities,” she said. Most stand-alone networks are being built in the Asia-Pacific region, she said. Rising inflation and lower expected growth are having an big effect, with some carriers holding back on 5G deployments “until there’s more stability within the economy,” she said.

A White House official called for more predictability in how spectrum decisions are made, at a Silicon Flatirons spectrum conference Friday. Austin Bonner, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy assistant director-spectrum and telecom policy, said she has had meetings with “dozens” of spectrum stakeholders about how policy could change. The administration is moving toward release of a national spectrum strategy, which the Trump administration promised but never delivered (see 2209190061).

The Wireless Infrastructure Association is continuing its push, started under former President Jonathan Adelstein (see 2204180045), to ensure that wireless has a big role to play as the federal government awards more than $48 billion in connectivity money through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, new President Patrick Halley said in an interview. WIA was among the groups that raised concerns NTIA is putting too much emphasis on fiber, in contravention of the direction from Congress when it created the broadband, equity, access and deployment program (see 2205130054).

A draft notice of inquiry on 12.7-13.25 GHz portrays the band as potentially providing part of the answer to the wireless industry’s quest for more mid-band to refill the spectrum pipeline. The NOI was among four items Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated Thursday for a vote at the Oct. 27 commissioners' meeting (see 2210050065). Also circulated: a Further NPRM that would give two more years of life to the FCC’s support for wireless carriers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands rebuilding after the 2017 hurricanes, an NPRM on emergency alerting, and a Stir/Shaken NOI.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the FCC should launch a rulemaking on higher power levels for the citizens broadband radio service band, saying that could be helpful to wireless ISPs, in a prerecorded interview with new WISP Association President David Zumwalt. The interview was aired Wednesday at a WISPA meeting in Las Vegas. “It’s worth asking the question, teeing it up,” Carr said. “There are certainly some use cases, particularly in rural communities where upping the power … might allow you from your existing tower site to reach one more home, one more business,” he said of CBRS changes: “At the end of the day, WISPs are so connected to their communities. … WISPs are scrappy. WISPs are getting the job done.” The FCC didn't comment. Carr said the FCC needs to get moving on other spectrum initiative as well, including on client-to-client devices in 6 GHz and the UNII2c band. WISPs are “looking for ways to have some stability in the ability to plan on what kind of spectrum they need to be prepared for, whether it’s licensed or unlicensed, and over what period of time they can roll that out,” Zumwalt said. His members are paying close attention to all the spectrum decisions being made at the FCC, he said. The FCC wants to offer licenses covering smaller geographic areas where possible, Carr said. “Maybe every single auction we might not get right ... but hopefully, over a course of years, we are doing some small geographies, some large geographies, and people are seeing a healthy mix,” he said. WISPA members have continuing concerns about NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and appreciate the questions that have been raised by Carr (see 2207210064), Zumwalt said: “It should have been more technology neutral and inclusive.” Carr said it looked to him like NTIA made “a lot of the right cuts” in the NOFO but “there was some political turning of the dials at the last minute.” Carr agreed about the need to refocus the NOFO. “We love fiber, we want tons of fiber,” he said. “But we need to be open-minded … for last-mile technologies, including fixed wireless,” he said. “We love fiber too,” Zumwalt responded: “But we love fiber in the right place, in the right circumstance.” Carr said insisting on a fiber-only approach means telling people “you need to wait on the wrong side of the digital divide years longer than necessary.” The FCC faces challenges delivering on a broadband map, expected in November, Carr said. “I don’t know that we have to hit a bulls-eye” with the initial map “but we have to at least get it in the strike zone,” he said. Carr said he hopes the FCC doesn’t revisit reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. “That’s just a backward looking debate,” he said. Title II and possible price controls, “really that’s a 2005 debate,” he said.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will seek a vote on a proposal to provide additional support for communications networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to make them more resilient, at the commission’s Oct. 27 meeting, Rosenworcel blogged Wednesday. The FCC will also consider a 13 GHz notice of inquiry and an NPRM aimed at making emergency alerting more secure. An item on Stir/Shaken rounds out the agenda.

Wireless carriers remain hopeful on the outlook for the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, despite recent comments by John Sherman, DOD chief information officer, about the high costs and long time frame for clearing the spectrum (see 2209190061). Industry experts note spectrum in recent FCC auctions has come with some protection for incumbent users, which will likely also be the case for 3.1 GHz.

Russia launched a “massive, broad” cyberattack on Ukraine as part of its invasion of the country in an attempt to “create disorder and overwhelm Ukraine’s cyber defenses,” but the results show the limits of cyberwar, Daniel Hoffman, former CIA senior officer and station chief, said in a keynote at an AT&T virtual cybersecurity conference Tuesday. Hoffman spoke with AT&T Chief Technology Officer Jeremy Legg.