Spectrum

The Federal Communications Commission took a step toward holding a major 5G spectrum auction in 2019 by adopting new rules that will promote the availability of high-band millimeter wave spectrum for the next generation of wireless connectivity. The airwaves in the combined Upper 37 GHz and 39 GHz bands are the largest amount of contiguous spectrum available for wireless service in the millimeter wave bands—2,400 megahertz in total—while the 47 GHz band provides an additional 1,000 megahertz of spectrum. Specifically, the Fourth Report and Order in the Spectrum Frontiers proceeding:

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit was the first time that journalists were able to see real, consumer 5G devices running on real 5G networks from Verizon and AT&T. On the island of Maui, a handful of 5G devices are available, but  journalists aren’t being allowed to try 5G in any meaningful way.

More than 19 million people living in rural America do not have access to broadband, a service as necessary as electricity in today’s digital economy. Microsoft President Brad Smith reiterated his call for a national strategy to close the rural broadband gap and highlighted that this is a problem the country can solve. The Microsoft Airband Initiative launched in July 2017 with the goal of working with partners to make broadband available to 2 million Americans in rural communities who lack access today and to help catalyze an ecosystem to connect millions more.

I’m pleased to note that the Americas region continues to work hard and steadily advance regional proposals for the 2019 International Telecommunication Union World Radio Conference. We are deeply focused on the WRC-19.

The lack of affordable broadband access in the US has resulted in large-scale educational inequities especially in rural areas where 31 percent of Americans have no choice of broadband providers. For many years, Educational Broadband Service (EBS) licensees have been dedicated to helping solve these inequities, but a proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission is putting these services at risk. EBS licensees are accredited educational institutions (or nonprofits focused on serving the needs of accredited educational institutions).

As a critical step in delivering on President Donald Trump’s call for development of a national spectrum strategy, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has asked federal agencies to report their future spectrum needs over the next 15 years. The reports will help ensure the federal government is optimizing utilization of the nation’s spectrum resources and meeting the needs of spectrum users, including critical federal missions that serve the American public. Agencies must submit their initial reports by Feb 21, 2019 and provide final reports by April 23, 2019.

Sens Steve Daines (R-MT) and Ron Johnson (R-MS) have asked the Federal Communications Commission to resolve interference issues with TV white spaces (TVWS) use by unlicensed devices, come up with final guidance, and allow for the expansion of TVWS use. They say the technology is key to closing the rural broadband divide because it is an affordable connectivity answer for rural and tribal communities.

A brief Q&A with Federal Communications Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel.