On October 1, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated two items to boost U.S. competitiveness in the global economy by removing barriers to private investment and unleashing mobile innovation. In an FCC blog post, Wheeler explained that there are few sectors of our economy that hold more promise for economic growth, job creation and U.S. leadership than mobile communications. Wheeler believes to maintain the country’s leadership position in this sector, we need to look to the future and act now to facilitate the fifth generation, or 5G, mobile technology. “This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking [NPRM] proposes a framework for flexible spectrum use rules for bands above 2.4 GHz, including for mobile broadband use,” Wheeler wrote. “Promoting flexible, dynamic spectrum use has been the bedrock that has helped the United States become a world leader in wireless.”
Verizon’s Vice President of Wireless Policy Development Charla Rath took to the company blog to applaud the FCC for the steps it’s taking on 5G technology. “The FCC action is a crucial step toward maintaining America’s global leadership in mobile broadband,” she wrote. Rath continued to say that Verizon was the first company to introduce 4G LTE about six years ago, and last month the company laid out an aggressive roadmap to be the first company to deploy 5G technology. As Roger Gurnani, Verizon executive vice president and chief information and technology architect for Verizon noted, “We feel a tremendous sense of urgency to push forward on 5G and mobilize the ecosystem by collaborating with industry leaders and developers to usher in a new generation of innovation.”
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