Commissioner Pai: The Future of Mobile Broadband in the Americas LTE to 5G Network Innovation

I’d like to focus my remarks on what I see as three key pieces of that 5G framework: freeing up more spectrum, removing barriers to infrastructure deployment, and encouraging innovation and investment in the network and mobile technologies. And in all three of these areas, there is more that the federal government can do and should be doing to ensure that America continues to lead the world as we move from 4G to 5G.

Spectrum: To enable our 5G future, we must free up more of this invisible resource for consumer use. Unfortunately, we have fallen behind our own goals for repurposing spectrum for mobile broadband. The Federal Communications Commission’s 2010 National Broadband Plan called for the agency to make 300 MHz of spectrum available by 2015. But it’s almost 2016, and the FCC has moved less than half of that amount into the commercial marketplace. I point this out not to assign blame, but to focus attention on the fact that we need to redouble our efforts and refill the spectrum pipeline.

Infrastructure: As important as spectrum is to making 5G a reality, we cannot lose sight of another key piece of the regulatory framework, which is removing barriers to infrastructure deployment. To support 5G, providers will have to densify their networks. And to help them do that, we need to expedite the siting of wireless infrastructure. There are going to be many more small cells in a 5G network, and greater densification means better wireless coverage, capacity, speed, and reliability.

Innovation and Investment: I’d like to turn now to what I think is a third key piece of the 5G regulatory framework -- promoting innovation and investment in our networks and mobile technologies.
when it comes to spurring the innovation and investment in 5G networks, I think it’s important that the FCC return to the light-touch approach we pursued for years. After all, those are the policies that allowed the US to become the world leader in 4G, and I believe those are the policies will serve us well in the transition to 5G.