FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has announced two spectrum auctions, planned to begin in November, that will contribute to the development of 5G. According to Pai’s blog, the FCC will vote in its August 2 meeting to conduct a November 2018 auction of spectrum in the 28 GHz band, to be followed soon after by an auction for the 24 GHz bands. These high frequency bands are critical for 5G, thanks to their capacity to deliver data and traffic more quickly and efficiently than lower frequencies.

“5G has the potential to have an enormously positive impact on American consumers,” Pai said in a statement to USA TODAY. “High-speed, high-capacity wireless connectivity will unleash new innovations to improve our quality of life. It’s the building block to a world where everything that can be connected will be connected – where driverless cars talk to smart transportation networks and where wireless sensors can monitor your health and transmit data to your doctor. That’s a snapshot of what the 5G world will look like.”

AT&T has progressed from field and lab trials to trialing their 5G fixed-wireless service to several residences in South Bend, Indiana. The results thus far are proving 5G’s capabilities, with one household reporting speeds of 1Gbps and latency under 20ms – performance that exceeds traditional home internet options and blows 4G out of the water. As president of AT&T Technology and Operations Melissa Arnoldi explained, this type of performance allows customers to use “bandwidth-heavy applications simultaneously and seamlessly — something that would be nearly impossible with current LTE technologies”.

AT&T’s 5G plans will continue in 2018 and 2019, with the first three large-scale rollouts planned for Dallas, Atlanta, and Waco.

Countries around the world have focused on harmonizing the 3.5GHz spectrum for 5G use on an international basis, but outdated regulations on that spectrum could impede the use of it in the U.S.

The current regulations were created under the assumption that the 3.5GHz spectrum would be used like Wi-Fi, with businesses or manufacturers and utilities installing antennas to facilitate private wireless networks, so licenses for 3.5GHz use are assigned using Census Tracks – which only cover a small area. The FCC and the mobile industry agree that assigning licenses  based on Census Tracks would be entirely unfeasible for 5G deployments, and regulations will have to be changed to make 3.5GHz a realistic part of the path to 5G.

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