In an April 17 FCC Blog post,
Chairman Ajit Pai announced a new proposal to reallocate more spectrum for next-generation
wireless services:
In addition, we’ll also move forward with yet
another item to free up spectrum for wireless services. The President’s Fiscal
Year 2020 budget — which “propos[es] legislative changes . . .
that pertain to the FCC” and that “are designed to improve spectrum management
and represent sound economic policy” — calls
on the Commission to "either auction or use
fee authority to assign spectrum frequencies between 1675–1680 megahertz for
flexible use by 2020, subject to sharing arrangements with Federal weather
satellites.” I agree with opening this spectrum for commercial use so that’s exactly
what I intend to do. So today, as the first step down that path, I’m
circulating a proposal to reallocate spectrum in the 1675–1680 MHz band for
shared use between incumbent federal operations and new, non-federal fixed or
mobile operations.
A TRDaily report
quoted Ligado Networks Board Chairman Ivan Seidenberg, who commended the
proposal’s potential benefits: “[I]f combined with other available frequencies,
it could unleash 40 MHz of vital lower mid-band spectrum to serve
mission-critical industrial Internet of Things and other emerging 5G
applications.”
Reallocating 1675–1680 MHz for shared federal and
non-federal commercial use, as Chairman Pai proposes, will help supply wireless
infrastructure needs and further U.S. competitiveness in the global race to 5G.
The creditworthy proposal is on the FCC’s agenda for its upcoming public
meeting on May 9.
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