Senate Commerce Hearing: Senate Looks to Speed Up Spectrum Availability

The Senate Commerce Committee took a deep dive into various government and industry efforts to make more spectrum available for 5G. Helping focus the hearing were two bills currently working their way through Congress, the SPECTRUM NOW and AIRWAVES Act. "Identifying spectrum resources not just for the next three years, but for the next 10 years and beyond is essential if we are to retain American leadership," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD). Craig Cowden, SVP of wireless technology for Charter, put in a plug for its Wi-Fi mobile broadband play. He said the company's Wi-Fi network now served 280 million wireless devices, some capable of enabling speeds approaching 1 Gig. Cowden put in a plug for opening up the 5.9 GHz band for unlicensed use, given that it is adjacent to the most used Wi-Fi band, calling it the "gateway" to a Wi-Fi revolution.