5G Mid-Band Spectrum: The Benefits of Full Power, Wide Channels, and Exclusive Licensing

Mid-band spectrum is the key to unlocking the benefits of 5G for American consumers, enterprises, and innovators. This spectrum constitutes a sweet spot, delivering a balance of coverage and deep capacity essential to 5G services. Certain technical aspects of this spectrum are essential for mobile operators to leverage these bands to unleash the full power of 5G and to ensure dependable, high-performance service. These include exclusive licensing, wide spectrum bands of hundreds of megahertz, and full-power radio base stations. These attributes are essential for the mid-band spectrum to be deployed on a widespread basis, covering most Americans, with reasonable capital efficiency. As policymakers consider additional mid-bands for 5G and successive generations, it is essential that these key technical attributes, which were used in C-band and 3.45 GHz, are maintained in order for the United States to continue to lead and innovate with 5G. Mobile data consumption has increased by more than one hundred times since 2010,1 and the Ericsson Mobility Report predicts that smartphone usage alone will increase to 52 GB/month in 2027 compared to 15 GB in 2021.2 Technology enhancements, site densification, and new spectrum brought to market have allowed the US to keep pace with traffic growth up to this point. Overall, only exclusive-use licensed spectrum, with its dependable, predictable, and interference-free characteristics, can provide the desired high quality of service. Countries with which the United States competes have come to the same conclusion and continue to base their spectrum allocations on this approach. But the US needs hundreds of megahertz of additional, exclusive-use mid-band spectrum at high power to remain competitive globally and to deliver on the 5G promise.

[This is a Rysavy Research report sponsored by CTIA]