USA: FCC Launches its High-Band 5G Spectrum Auction

FCC, the Federal Communications Commission, of the US started its first ever high-band spectrum auction on Wednesday.  The agency is working to deploy the next-generation high-speed networks.

The bidding process took place on Wednesday. The opening round of the bidding process saw bidding for spectrum in the 24GHz band. After this auction, there will be another auction which will take place next year. In the 2019 auction, the biddings will be open for the following wave spectrum bands — 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz.

Telecom companies like Verizon Communication, Spring Corp, AT&T, and T-Mobile US Inc. are already conducting trials on 5G and are looking to buy spectrums. It is expected that, in 2019, the world’s first 5G commercial Smartphones will be launched in the market for sale.

5G networks will likely deliver more speed than the current 4G networks which will cut latency and delays. This will pave the way for various fields to carryout innovations within a less period of time. The millimeter-wave spectrum has the capability to deliver high speed but lacks coverage of big geographical areas and will need major small cell infrastructure deployments.

A Spectrum Strategy Taskforce for White House is being created by the US government for helping federal agencies. With that, the federal agencies can report government spectrums and reviewabout how spectrum can be shared with private sector users.