FCC Commissioner Simington Addresses Incompas Policy Summit

I’d like to focus on the future of 5G as a technology that I think could revolutionize private networking in the US and allow this country to strengthen its international position in manufacturing. Apart from its benefits to consumers, I know that many policymakers are counting on the 5G revolution to create new application frameworks and new industrial possibilities. Non-phone, non-consumer cellular devices are a product category that goes from niche to viability at scale through 5G’s capacities in latency, density, multiple planes, and network edge intelligence. But precisely because they are a new product category dependent on sophisticated and capital-intensive network infrastructure, we have to ask how we get from a consumer-facing cell network, and the businesses that grew up around it, to the non-consumer uses that show such potential. If consumers see benefits from 5G, network infrastructure companies like telecoms, tower companies, and tower equipment companies will have the money to keep building the networks we need to support a new generation of business and public safety applications—just as we’re starting to see in countries like China, where 5G has a head start. So, to get economies of scale and pervasive network availability, we need to find smarter ways to monetize 5G in the short term, so that the technology can be more broadly deployed for alternative uses. That is where an exclusive use-licensing model can and must play a starring role. The FCC is still committed to consumer 5G spectrum commercialization, and I don’t think we have to choose between two models; instead, we have to look at every option and every model that is likely to enable growth, and we have to allow the private sector to explore a variety of technological options.