At its September 30 public meeting, the FCC is set to consider a report and order and notice of rulemaking that will help free up 100 MHz of spectrum in the 3.45-3.55 GHz band for shared use with government users. The draft report and order would thereby enable commercial 5G services to operate in this important slice of mid-band spectrum.
Prior blog posts have highlighted a recent report by Boston Consulting Group and another report by Analysys Mason that call attention to the pressing need for more spectrum availability for 5G. The draft report and order is precisely the type of action the Commission ought to undertake to meet that pressing need for mid-band spectrum. This blog expresses no view on different proposals for fine-tuning the draft report and order that the Commission will be voting on. But this blog strongly supports the FCC voting to approve the steps needed to put this valuable 100 MHz of mid-band spectrum into shared use for commercial 5G services.
As explained in the Free State Foundation's comments to the Commission in its current Section 706 proceeding on broadband deployment progress, in addition to adopting its pending proposal on the 100 MHz, the agency should "[a]lso identify as much additional spectrum within the 3.1-3.45 GHz band as may reasonably be reallocated for licensed commercial usage. Once it has done so, the Commission should undertake efforts that will be needed to relocate existing users and free up that spectrum for public auction." Also worth serious consideration, as noted in a February 2019 blog, is a report by Analysis Group that identified the hugely positive potential economic impact of reallocating 400 MHz of licensed mid-band spectrum between 3.45 and 4.2 GHz.
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