LAS VEGAS, January 9, 2024 – More spectrum will be necessary to expand 5G mobile networks in the United States, experts said at CES on Tuesday.
“We need to not only open up more spectrum bands, we need to use them as efficiently as possible,” said Chris Lewis, president and CEO of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge.
Lewis cited as a step in the right direction the National Spectrum Strategy, a plan put forward by the White House in November to study almost 2,800 MHz for potential repurposing and to set up a long-term spectrum planning framework.
Beefing up the nation’s spectrum pipeline, as well as promoting unlicensed use and dynamic spectrum sharing, should be positive for 5G adoption going forward, Lewis said.
The plan “set down the right principles to move forward,” he said.
For all that to come to fruition, the Federal Communications Commission will need its spectrum auction authority renewed, something the Commission has been pushing lawmakers on. Congress let the authority lapse for the first time in March, and efforts to reinstate it have stalled.
A stopgap measure was passed in December allowing the Commission to issue licenses that had been purchased before the lapse. Those will be used, largely by T-Mobile, to expand 5G footprints.
The World Radiocommunications Conference also tapped in December several hundred megahertz of spectrum for licensed, mobile use globally, part of an effort to help satiate the demand for growing 5G networks.
Some of that has already been reserved for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use in the United States.
Chris Emmons, vice president of devices and accessories at Verizon, said freeing up more spectrum would allow the company to continue expanding home broadband on its 5G networks. Some states have flagged concerns about the capacity on those networks, as cell traffic is prioritized during congestion, but Emmons said fixed wireless broadband is more adequate on 5G networks than on previous standards.
“Fixed wireless access for consumers has been a dream for a long time,” he said. “There were 3G attempts, there were 4G attempts… There have been a lot of things that people have tried over the years, but we’ve actually seen a fixed wireless solution now that scales successfully.”
“As long as we continue to get the spectrum we need, we will engineer that properly and provide for all these use cases,” Emmons said.
