Rural Digital Opportunity Fund Winning Bidder Nextlink Reveals Gigabit Fixed Wireless Speed in 6 GHz Band

Nextlink Internet, which was one of the biggest winning bidders in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, said it has achieved speeds of 1 Gbps doanload and 500 Mbps upload using fixed wireless equipment in the 6 GHz band. The performance was achieved using a 160 MHz channel over distances of two miles, the company said. Nextlink and some other large RDOF winning bidders tentatively won funding to cover some of the costs of deploying broadband at 1 Gbps/ 500 Mbps speeds to unserved rural areas using a combination of fixed wireless and fiber broadband but have not yet had funding released to them. According to Nextlink, fixed wireless providers generally have not yet been able to use the 6 GHz spectrum at standard power levels because they are waiting for the FCC to approve the automated frequency coordination (AFC) system required for standard-power use. The purpose of the AFC is to prevent standard-power access points from operating where they could cause interference to incumbent services.