FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr discussed his new way to commute to work, an electric scooter, to the audience at Mobile World Congress Americas last week. He said that mobility is possible due to 4G. He described how the FCC is updating its wireless infrastructure rules, noting that since 2015, China has deployed 350,000 cell sites as part of its network densification for 5G. However, less than 300,000 were built here in the same time-frame.
Carr noted that since the FCC updated its historic and environmental rules that governed the construction of cell sites to account for their limited size and footprint, “one provider reports that it’s now clearing small cells for construction at roughly six times the pace as before.” Carr described a recent trip to Fishers, IN, right outside of Indianapolis. In Fisher, Mayor Scott Fadness negotiated a provision in the state’s small cell bill to preserve the right of municipalities to conduct reasonable aesthetic reviews, according to the Commissioner. In Fishers, Carr saw dozens of new small cells “deployed on street lights to minimize their visual impact.”
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said it’s not too late to begin thinking about 6G. Rethinking spectrum auctions would help that come to fruition sooner, she said. That’s especially needed as national telecom providers are bigger and fewer in number.
“We need to consider how the size, duration, and set of rights that come with a license can increase the range of actors willing to participate in our auctions. We need to put a premium on auctioning multiple bands at once, rather than offering them to market piecemeal, one at a time,” said Rosenworcel.
Finally, Commissioner Michael O’Rielly introduced a panel on international spectrum and 5G. “Nations that are leading the world in technological advances should demand more in terms of spectrum reallocations to prepare for future wireless services in the one-, five-, 10- and 20-year timeframes,” he said. O’Rielly called it “unacceptable” to allow specific nations or regions to block spectrum progress “when it’s done not to preserve national security or prevent harmful interference, but to further the parochial goals of the objectors.” Those reasons can include “protecting the financial balance sheets of domestic incumbents or enabling a nation’s companies to compete — or even dominate — internationally.”
September 17, 2018
