Safe Connections Act

The U.S. submitted a proposal for the World Radiocommunication Conference next month to allow flexible use of the lower UHF band, said Decker Anstrom, U.S. ambassador to the WRC. The proposal has the support of eight other nations, he said Wednesday. Other multinational proposals for the band are also expected, Anstrom said. NAB slammed the U.S. proposal.

FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen said a precautionary approach to regulating the IoT is being adopted by some policymakers and could deny or delay its benefits. During a Georgetown University Center for Business and Public Policy and Wireless Technology Association conference Wednesday, Ohlhausen detailed her push for "permissionless innovation" in the IoT field, which industry experts said stands to benefit greatly from 5G development and deployment.

COPENHAGEN -- Despite growing consensus on some aspects of 5G, many issues remain open, speakers said at a conference this week. The timeline for rollout seems to be coalescing around 2020, although some Asian countries are preparing for commercial deployment a bit sooner, they said. But there is "less clarity about the business case," said Nigel Jefferies, who chairs the World Wireless Research Forum, which organized the conference that ran Monday and Tuesday. 5G success will depend on its tie-in with other industry sectors, several panelists said.

NYU Wireless Wednesday filed at the FCC a technical report on millimeter wave propagation measurements inside an office building. The study found a “strong dependence on path loss over distance as the frequency increases,” NYU said. “The paper also shows that simpler, distant-dependent path loss models do virtually the same job at predicting signal strength as more cumbersome and less intuitive models currently used in industry.” Researchers looked at the 28 and 73 GHz bands. The report noted that while the 2.4 and 5 GHz Wi-Fi bands have been widely used for indoor wireless communications for more than 10 years, less is known about high-frequency spectrum. “The impending spectrum and capacity crunch for outdoor cellular may very well lead to the use of the 28 GHz and 73 GHz mmWave frequency bands as an extension for 5G outdoor and indoor communications, especially due to the trend of shrinking cell sizes,” the report said. The FCC is expected to approve an NPRM on high frequency spectrum at its Oct. 22 open meeting (see 1510010067).

T-Mobile sees LTE-unlicensed as providing the first real competition for Wi-Fi, said Mark McDiarmid, vice president-radio network engineering, during a final panel at the Competitive Carriers Association’s annual conference in Fort Lauderdale. Competition is good, he said. “It encourages ecosystems to perform and reform.” Competition leads to “breakthroughs,” he said. Jim Lienau, chief technology officer at Wisconsin-based Cellcom, said his company is very interested in unlicensed. “Anything that can help to bring a better product or service or any more capacity into rural areas is a plus for us,” he said. “We’re in areas where Wi-Fi isn’t even available,” he said. Cellcom has brought broadband to some areas for the first time, he said. Lienau said he sees LTE-U in the end as “just another tool in the toolbox.” LTE-U is one way to help meet the surge in data in the mobile sector, said Neville Meijers, Qualcomm vice president-small cells. “We’ve got to provide more spectrum, better technology, better devices, innovation around things like carrier aggregation,” he said. “We need better deployment of small cells.” LTE-U also isn't a “land grab” of unlicensed spectrum, Meijers said. Lienau said small carriers also need to “keep their eye on 5G, where it’s going, because we all need to be a part of it.” Carriers need to “keep that engine running” and they have to deploy 4G first to even get to 5G, he said.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Competitive carriers need to help shape 5G and what it will look like, Mark McDiarmid, T-Mobile vice president-radio network engineering, told the Competitive Carriers Association convention Wednesday. One of the convention's big themes is helping small carriers get ready for 5G and starting the discussions now, CCA President Steve Berry said.

FORT LAUDERDALE -- The FCC won't back down from clamping down on local governments that stand in the way of building out wireless infrastructure, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told the Competitive Carriers Association Wednesday in a keynote speech. In adopting an order a year ago designed to speed deployment of distributed antenna systems, small cells and other wireless facilities (see 1410170048) the commission “finally ended, or so we thought, some of the disruptive practices of states and localities to impede the placement of wireless towers.” But resistance to tower siting continues, he said.

The U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations said they reached a final deal on the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, which would affect a range of e-commerce, IP and other areas of trade law. The deal will now go through a technical review before going to the U.S. Congress and other national legislatures for consideration. Although a range of industry stakeholders expressed optimism Monday about TPP, many reserved judgment until they're able to review the final text of the agreement. Members of Congress also raised skepticism Monday about TPP’s final contours. It’s unclear the extent to which TPP’s IP provisions will factor into Congress’ consideration of the deal, stakeholders told us.

The FCC should take a new look at service designations in the 27.5-38.35 GHz band because technology and market changes have shown that satellite operators deserve co-primary status there, said the Satellite Industry Association in a filing posted Monday in docket 14-177. That co-primary designation "would provide satellite operators much-needed certainty that their investments in significant earth station facilities will be protected against the impacts of terrestrial operations in the band," SIA said. With the FCC looking at modifying the parameters for terrestrial use in that band and opening it up for 5G mobile services, the agency should also look at means of guaranteeing fixed satellite services (FSS) access to the spectrum, because they already use it for earth station uplinks without any interference to local multipoint distribution services, SIA said. The FCC also should revisit its "dated assumptions" on other FSS earth station terminals operating in the band to ascertain what -- if any -- techniques or technologies now exist that could let FSS earth station uplinks operate in the band without interfering with terrestrial networks, SIA said.

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt plans to speak to the Senate Commerce Committee on 5G Friday, said an ex parte document filed with the FCC Wednesday in docket 14-177. “We thought that you would find it of interest as the Commission explores new technologies that could unlock mid-band and higher band frequency spectrum for 5G and the next generation of mobile wireless services that it offers,” said Covington & Burling attorney Gerry Waldron, directing the filing to Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp. Hundt's presentation runs 53 slides, all included in the filing. One slide says 5G will come to reach everyone, everywhere, and another is titled, “5G: 40 Times More Spectrum.” Another slide said the IoT requires 5G and 5G requires a new radio access network on greenfield spectrum. “5G green field build needs to be anchored in mid band,” the presentation said. The Senate Commerce Committee has outlined a series of spectrum hearings this year, with an eye toward legislation.