Smarter devices, faster smartphones will follow from FCC 5G spectrum auctions

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the FCC will vote in its Aug 2 meeting to conduct a Nov 2018 auction of spectrum in the 28 gigahertz band, with a subsequent 24 GHz band auction soon afterwards.  These so-called high-band spectrum swaths are necessary for wireless providers and other tech players because, even though they travel shorter distances than other spectrum, they can deliver more data and traffic more quickly. 5G networks will be created using a combination of high-band, along with low-band and mid-band spectrum, which can travel farther but handle less data at slower speeds. Each of the major wireless carriers has some spectrum it plans to use for 5G trials and deployment. But not much high-band spectrum has been made available up until now, with Verizon holding the most. In the second half of 2019, the FCC will hold an additional high-band spectrum auction of the 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz bands.