High-Frequency Spectrum Critical to 5G, Industry Tells FCC

Questions remain. Last year’s World Radiocommunication Conference said it would look at bands above 6 GHz for 5G but not the 28 GHz band (see 1510230050), even though that band is an FCC priority.

4G Americas encouraged the FCC to offer broad geographic license sizes, to avoid using a population-based performance metric to measure spectrum usage and to adopt “a licensing scheme that provides exclusive use and a minimum of 200 MHz blocks to incentivize investment.” 4G Americas asked the FCC to move quickly on final rules for the millimeter wave spectrum. “Moving to a Report and Order in the near term will reduce investment risk and uncertainty in the U.S.,” 4G America said. “A compelling public interest rationale exists for the FCC to act quickly for these bands. Making them available will foster added investment, innovation, and competition in the U.S., and allow the U.S. to be a leader internationally.” At the recent WRC other nations also indicated an interest in using the 28 and 39 GHz bands for 5G, the group said. “Early action by the U.S. will help expedite global economies for 5G applications and devices.”

“Compared to spectrum currently available for mobile cellular networks below 3 GHz, very large channels are possible (perhaps 100 times larger, or more),” Intel said in comments. “In turn, extremely high throughputs (multiple Gbps) are achievable.” Intel put particular emphasis on the importance of the 20 GHz band, saying Korea and Japan plan to use the band for the Seoul and Tokyo Olympics to showcase 5G. “The 28 GHz band,” more so than other high-frequency spectrum, “has been the focus of academic research into channel models, and industry prototyping efforts,” Intel said. “It is already designated as a primary mobile allocation in all regions worldwide.”

The FCC should make the 28, 37 and 39 GHz bands available for mobile services, Samsung said. To speed deployment, Samsung said the agency’s rules should be similar across the high-frequency bands. “5G systems will, among other things, support groundbreaking applications, enable the ‘Internet of Things,’ and profoundly improve the way mobile services are integrated into daily life,” the company said in comments. Samsung said initiatives already are underway in the U.S. and in other nations on the use of so-called “millimeter wave” spectrum. “The Commission should prioritize development of 5G and lead the way for the next era of global mobile technology,” Samsung said.

PCIA said the FCC deployment in high-band spectrum will only happen if the agency gets the rules right on infrastructure deployment. “A successful 5G network will require the support of robust infrastructure,” PCIA said in a filing. “Networks will continue to rely on both macro towers to provide broader coverage and small wireless facilities used primarily to address capacity needs to provide short-range coverage.” Roadblocks to deployment continue, the group said.

Mobile Future said Verizon is targeting this year for the first field tests of 5G. “Achieving the potential benefits of 5G will require the FCC to look at both high and low bands for additional spectrum to meet consumers’ continuing demand for greater bandwidth and faster speeds that will be necessary to enable a growing array of interconnected devices -- in the home, at work, in the car, on the farm, and everywhere else,” Mobile Future said.

The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) asked the FCC to set aside frequencies between 57 and 64 GHz for unlicensed use “creating one contiguous band between 57 and 71 GHz.” The FCC should also allow unlicensed use of the 71-76 81-86 GHz bands “so long as they do not interfere with lightly licensed operations,” DSA said in comments.

Facebook urged the FCC to make the 28, 37 and 39 GHz bands available for mobile use “while also promoting sharing among a variety of users and platforms” and to allocate the 64-71 GHz band for unlicensed use. “In today’s knowledge-based global economy, connectivity matters more than ever,” Facebook said.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory raised general concerns, especially on the 64-71 GHz band. NARO is concerned about protecting radioastronomy. “Above 67-68 GHz the atmosphere becomes sufficiently transparent that anthropogenic signals travel longer distances and cosmic radio waves penetrate the entire depth of the atmosphere to be observed at the surface,” NARO said. “Applications using the upper portion of the 64-71 GHz band will be able to use significantly lower signal levels to achieve the same range and/or throughput, but may interfere over much longer distances.”