Superfast 5G wireless is not exactly spread across the US with super fast speeds. The White House and Department of Defense announced Monday a plan to speed up the process by making a crucial new piece of spectrum available to the wireless sector.
The spectrum, which telecom companies will share with the Pentagon, aims to offer 5G wider wireless carriers in the US. It would also have to generate billions of dollars for the U.S. Treasury when it goes out of auction. The frequency is currently used for high power defense radar, but the DoD has determined that it can be released without affecting military systems.
“It’s a big deal,” for the wireless sector, says Jason Leigh, an analyst at IDC who focuses on 5G. “The US is desperate for some spectrum in the mid-band.”
Unlocking the new spectrum is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to defeat the great technological rival of America, China, to leadership in a technology that could be vital for advancement in everything from smart factories to automobiles who even rides.
“Our great innovators and entrepreneurs will continue to push the boundaries of this emerging technology,” said Michael Kratsios, chief technology officer of the US, in an interview with reporters on Monday.
5G is a much hyped and confusing market, but it can end up being a huge deal for consumers and businesses. The technology promises download speeds of up to one gigabit per second, latency of less than 10 milliseconds, and capacity for many more devices. Today’s LTE networks offer downloads of about 40 megabits per second and latency of about 100 milliseconds, although performance often slows down in busy areas due to network congestion.
The faster speed and shorter deceleration could prove crucial for self-driving cars, producing robots that use artificial intelligence, and new hospital equipment. More importantly, it could serve as a basis for new innovations in the tech sector, just as 4G enabled a new generation of smartphones to do all sorts of new things.
5G networks use several different frequencies, with mobile devices jumping seamlessly between them. Until now, American wireless carriers have mostly deployed transmitters that use high-frequency millimeter-wave signals, which allow high data speeds but travel only a few hundred meters and are susceptible to interference. That has limited 5G to small areas of a few cities.
The frequencies involved in Monday’s announcement are called mid-band, a range that allows 5G signals to travel more reliably while relying on fewer cell speeds. Other countries, including China, are also racing to deploy 5G networks, with more focus on mid-band frequencies. “To cover an entire city in mid-range, it will really be noticeable in your day-to-day use,” Leigh says.
The government will work with the sector to develop a scheme for sharing the spectrum in the coming months. The plan is for the Federal Communications Commission to auction off the new spectrum in December 2021.
The FCC has been criticized for not providing enough midrange frequencies for the sector before, but is currently at the auction of another 70 MHz of the midband spectrum, with bids expected to top multi-billion dollars. When bidding, the new frequencies could generate similar amounts, says Berge Ayvazian, a senior analyst at Wireless 20 | 20.
FCC President Ajit Pai described Monday’s announcement as “an important milestone in securing the United States’ leadership in 5G.”
The Trump administration has identified 5G as a key technology for the future of the US. It is particularly concerned about China, a growing geopolitical rival, establishing a leadership role in 5G. The concern is that the next big tech companies, built on widespread availability of 5G, could first emerge in China.
The US government has accused China’s leading 5G company, Huawei, of stealing technology and positioning security risks due to close ties with the Chinese government. It has restricted use of Huawei in the US and imposed imposing sanctions on the company’s supply chain.
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