DOD Board Seeks More Sharing of Defense Spectrum for 5G; Unusual Step for Such Panel
An advisory board to the Pentagon took what some consider an unusual step of encouraging the department that arranged for the group to do more to free up spectrum for commercial use such as for 5G. The U.S. can’t be the world leader in 5G without more spectrum below 6 GHz, the Defense Innovation Board (DIB) reported. The independent federal committee, which advises the secretary of defense, said DOD must share much more mid-band spectrum and the department must revise how it views spectrum. “The current status quo of spectrum allocation is unsustainable," DIB said. Milo Medin, Google vice president-wireless services, and venture capitalist Gilman Louie wrote the report.
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U.S. carriers have focused on high-band spectrum for 5G, but China focused on spectrum below 6 GHz, DIB said. The U.S. can’t win using mostly millimeter-wave spectrum. “As 5G is deployed across the globe in similar bands of spectrum, China’s handset and internet applications and services are likely to become dominant, even if they are excluded from the US,” DIB said. “China is on a track to repeat in 5G what happened with the United States in 4G.”
The board said more DOD spectrum must be available commercially. “DOD needs to make a plan for sharing sub-6 GHz spectrum to shape the future 5G ecosystem, including an assessment of how much and which bandwidths need to be shared, within what timeframe, and how that sharing will impact DOD systems.”
Much of the mid-band spectrum being used for 5G in China is now used by federal agencies, especially DOD in the U.S., and that must change, DIB said. It suggests focusing on the 3.2-3.6 GHz and 4.8-5.0 GHz ranges being used in China for 5G: “The commercial world has developed semiconductors and handsets that are configured for that range, and DOD should angle for the most developed market to expedite 5G sub-6 GHz deployment in the United States.” It noted that while some "5G technology will be deployed in the currently-used cellular spectrum and achieve modest gains in performance (LTE is already fairly well optimized), full 5G development will require significantly more spectrum to provide another step-change improvement in performance.”
Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said it’s “highly unusual for anything coming out of DOD to call on DOD to give up more spectrum” for commercial use. “It's also clear that the Trump administration remains fixated on the threat from China in terms of infiltrating American networks and dominating the technology globally,” Feld said. “I don't know if that means we will see yet another appearance of the idea of a national network, but concerns about China are clearly going to be an increasing driver of wireless policy in the White House.”
U.S. carriers will need more sub-6 GHz spectrum while the buildout of millimeter-wave antennas is underway, and DOD has most of that spectrum now, said network architect Richard Bennett. “Millimeter-wave is the best bet over the long term,” he said. “The U.S., Japan, and Korea are following the same general plan toward millimeter-wave.”
DIB emphasized the threat from China. “In Europe, Huawei and ZTE are offering their services to build individual countries’ 5G networks, and have signed multiple 5G contracts despite pressure from U.S. officials demanding that allies block Chinese companies,” DIB said. Huawei is boosting its share of the equipment market, the report said: “These efforts will allow China to promote its preferred standards and specifications for 5G networks and will shape the global 5G product market.” The report also emphasized the strong challenge from South Korea.
DIB's views are likely to be given weight since the group’s charter was renewed by the Trump administration, said Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell. “The committee’s recommendation that DOD take action to share its sub-6 GHz spectrum for 5G is unlikely to be popular in the defense community, but the recommendation’s potential benefits for U.S. competitiveness in this area might be enough to persuade the DOD to take another look.”
No one knew how the 4G economy would unfold and there are lots of unknowns about 5G, said Robert McDowell of Cooley. “All flavors of spectrum will be needed depending on different use cases and applications,” he emailed: “As entrepreneurs experiment in the market place, we will need an abundant supply of low-band, mid-band and high frequency spectrum.”
The report makes clear achieving U.S. leadership in 5G “should be an integral part of the country’s national security strategy” and DOD “should commit more aggressively to sharing spectrum with the private sector that can be used for 5G,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. May said the U.S. should “continue to pursue an ‘all-of-the-above’ spectrum strategy, which is consistent with the report’s insights.’”
The report relies too heavily on sharing and “underestimates the value of full clearing where possible,” said Doug Brake, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy. “All the true success stories to date have been where bands are either fully cleared for exclusive licensing driving massive investment, or fully cleared for cheap, low-cost unlicensed equipment that doesn’t have the overhead of sharing mechanisms.”
The report was released Wednesday. CTIA held a summit on 5G Thursday (see 1904040048).