“5G and the technologies it enables are not ours by right, as those in rural America know. 5G is not an inevitability or simply a function of time. It is the product of purposeful effort and long-term planning,” FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington told the audience at the CCA convention in Portland yesterday. The show runs through today.
Speaking by video, he said the “capital intensive” 5G transition has been a decade in the making and the country is now poised to “fully deploy” 5G in C-band spectrum.
But in order to ensure continued success of 5G, policymakers must get spectrum policy right, he explained. He said the agency has noticed a “mental shift” among some policy circles, from one where the highest and best use of spectrum is one of high-powered use of exclusive licensing, to a shared spectrum model.
“I’ve said that I think the need for sharing of spectrum will only increase over the next 20 years, and people looking ahead at 6G often assume that a sharing model will predominate,” said Simington.” Yet he cautioned before the U.S. leaps “to a sharing-centered world of policy, we should remember that being too early can be even worse than being too late.”
He continued, “We can’t afford to be an island in a sea of exclusive use full-powered licenses. It doesn’t matter who I ask. Device manufacturers, our equipment companies, network engineers, major telecoms — everyone agrees for 5G, we need the present licensing model.”
He cited the present model as enabling 5G frameworks and new industrial possibilities. 5G enables “smart” manufacturing, according to the newest Commissioner. It can revive the once vibrant industrial sectors of smaller and rural communities. 5G high reliability and ultra-low latency can help a factory be more flexible, so workers can make one product in the morning and another in the afternoon, he explained. It can do this using a wireless private network. It means more productivity, less down time and more safety for workers, according to Simington.
“Based on where we are right now, the networks needed for 5G manufacturing to take off must be funded by companies whose present customer base emphasizes the consumer sector,” he explained. “If consumers see benefits from 5G, money will be available to support a new generation of manufacturing applications, just as we’re starting to see in countries where 5G has a head start.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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