Safe Connections Act

LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters will come to the table to offer spectrum in next year’s TV incentive auction, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told CTIA Wednesday at its convention. Wheeler also said, emphatically, the FCC has a plan for making more spectrum available for mobile broadband. “I’ve talked to most of the CEOs of major broadcast organizations and I think they’re going to show up” for the incentive auction, Wheeler said.

The U.S. has to move forward if it wants to continue its mobile dominance, Mobile Future said in a report released Tuesday, with CTIA about to get underway in Las Vegas. Europe “has initiated a 5G public-private partnership aimed at leading the world in this next wireless frontier,” the paper said. “South Korea plans to launch a 5G trial network when it hosts the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, and Japan aims to follow suit at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. China, too, has established an interagency ‘promotion group’ to coordinate 5G activities among industry and academia.” While 5G networks are unlikely to be deployed before the end of the decade, “the global race to lead the world in this next wireless frontier is already well underway,” Mobile Future said. “Smarter wireless policy is more vital than ever.” The paper was written by Jim Kohlenberger, president of JK Strategies and a former White House technology official.

Verizon, in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and Samsung, plans to begin field trials of 5G wireless technology in 2016, the company said in a news release Tuesday. Verizon said that although 5G technology should be introduced in the U.S. sometime after 2020, it's working with partners to accelerate the rate of innovation, and could see some level of commercial deployment by 2017. The company also said it has begun creating 5G network environments in its Massachusetts and San Francisco Innovation Centers. 5G technology is expected to include "about 50 times the throughput of current 4G LTE," reduce latency into the single-digit milliseconds and have the ability to handle exponentially more Internet-connected devices to accommodate the Internet of Everything, said Verizon.

As the wireless industry contemplates the use of high-frequency spectrum, it needs to develop technology beyond LTE, Michael Peeters, Alcatel-Lucent chief technology officer-wireless technologies, said Thursday on a 4G Americas webinar. LTE isn't well suited to “millimeter-wave” spectrum, Peeters said. “We need to think about coverage and making sure that 5G can reuse 4G capacity as well, so we definitely need a new waveform to be able to span both the high and low frequency bands as well as having high-speed mobile broadband.”

Congress has an opportunity this year to pass bipartisan legislation forcing additional spectrum auctions, after next year’s TV incentive auction, former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said Wednesday on a call with reporters. McDowell said he's told by his Capitol Hill contacts that new legislation will premier later this month when Congress returns to Washington. CTIA and some of its major members are making a big push for legislation this year, industry officials told us. That's expected to be one of the hot topics next week at CTIA’s annual show in Law Vegas.

Industry must make certain that delegates to the World Radiocommunications Conference in November approve an agenda item for the following WRC, which is scheduled for 2019 and focuses on 5G spectrum, said Reza Arefi, Intel director-spectrum strategy. “Harmonization doesn’t happen overnight,” said Arefi, co-author of a recent 4G Americas white paper on “5G Spectrum Recommendations.” He spoke Wednesday on a 4G Americas webinar.

Representatives of Nokia Solutions and Networks US offered their take on high-frequency spectrum, in a meeting with FCC staff, said a filing in posted Thursday in docket 14-177, saying "71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz should remain under consideration along with the other mmWave bands the Commission is considering for 5G.” Nokia also sees “industry traction” for 70/80 GHz,” it said. “5G is expected to optimize below 6 GHz access and enable above 6 GHz access," Nokia said, saying 6-100 GHz spectrum is expected to be studied by the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019. Nokia also said “5G will provide an order of magnitude improvement in performance” and the amount of licensed spectrum “needs to be large enough to support multiple operators.” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a recent blog post the FCC will likely soon release an NPRM as it continues its examination of how new developments in technology could increase the viability of operations in bands above 24 GHz (see 1508030071). The FCC launched a notice of inquiry on the topic in October (see 1410170048).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology formed the 5G mmWave Channel Model Alliance to look at 3D channel modeling at high frequencies, NIST said in a news release. Last week, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC soon would press ahead on an NPRM on more use of high-frequency spectrum bands (see 1508030071). NIST said the alliance includes telecom companies and universities. “NIST created the group to help meet a global surge in demand for wireless data transmission and capacity,” NIST said Tuesday. “As telecommunication frequencies go higher, the behavior of wireless signals changes. Different factors, like structures in the way, affect signal loss and distortion. Accurate models based on real-world measurements are needed to design not only the optimum system hardware but to develop standards that drive the underlying protocols for handling the transmissions. The work is challenging, in part because the technologies don't exist yet.”

A number of “use cases” will drive the growth of 5G, 4G Americas said in white paper released Tuesday. HD video, supported in high-density areas and “with ubiquitous coverage,” is one driver, the group said. “Other categories of 5G use cases include ultra-reliable communications for industry/transport automation, low latency communications applications, and high/medium data rate service for massive Machine Type Communication (MTC) for various applications like e-health, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), augmented reality and tactile internet.” Spectrum will need to be available for 5G in bands under 500 MHz to 60 GHz and beyond, the group said. “As much of the spectrum, especially in the lower ranges, is currently used by other applications and services, a critical aspect to securing additional spectrum is to leverage new regulatory frameworks involving shared spectrum whenever dedicated licensed spectrum is not feasible,” 4G Americas said. “This will help address the need for more spectrum and enable more efficient utilization of the spectrum while still protecting the incumbent services.”

Intel urged the FCC to proceed quickly on launching an NPRM on high-frequency spectrum. The plea came in a series of meetings at the agency, said a filing in docket 14-177. Intel also filed a white paper on the topic at the FCC as part of the discussion. Last week, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler indicated the FCC would soon press ahead on an NPRM, building on last year’s notice of inquiry (see 1508030071). Intel calls the high-frequency spectrum millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum. “Intel believes the record in the NOI justifies moving forward with an NPRM,” Intel said in the white paper. “We believe it would be beneficial to marketplace developments if the FCC were to expeditiously make mmW frequencies available for 5G, and importantly, under flexible rules which incentivize incumbent license holders to put the spectrum to its highest-value use.” If the FCC moves quickly, it would be an encouragement to the ITU to add a discussion on high-frequency spectrum at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2019, Intel said. “It will be crucial that the U.S. support the principle that other countries and/or regions could include additional frequency bands to the scope of the 5G agenda item during these discussions,” the company said. Quick FCC action would also “reduce investment risk and uncertainty in the U.S. especially as to particular bands,” Intel said. Intel recommended a mix of licensed and unlicensed bands in the spectrum.