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Communications

FCC OKs Sweeping Spectrum Frontiers Rules To Open Up Nearly 11 GHz Of Spectrum (fiercewireless.com) 64

Monica Alleven, reporting for FierceWirelessTech: In one fell swoop, the FCC today put the U.S. in a 5G leadership position, voting 5-0 to approve its Spectrum Frontiers proceeding and make spectrum bands above 24 GHz available for 5G. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, noting his previous remarks on the proceeding, kept his remarks brief to avoid repeating himself. But he summed it up this way before the final vote: "This is a big day for our nation. This is a big day for this agency," he said. "I do believe this is one of the, if not the most, important decision this agency will make this year. By becoming the first nation to identify high-band spectrum, the United States is ushering in the 5G era of high capacity, high-speed, low-latency wireless networks. By not getting involved in the technologies that will use the spectrum, we're turning loose the incredible innovators of this country," he said. The new rules open up nearly 11 GHz of high-frequency spectrum for mobile and fixed wireless broadband -- 3.85 GHz of licensed spectrum and 7 GHz of unlicensed spectrum. The rules create a new Upper Microwave Flexible Use service in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz), 37 GHz (37-38.6 GHz) and 39 GHz (38.6-40 GHz) bands, and a new unlicensed band at 64-71 GHz. The FCC will continue to seek comment on bands above 95 GHz.
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FCC OKs Sweeping Spectrum Frontiers Rules To Open Up Nearly 11 GHz Of Spectrum

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  • by lobiusmoop ( 305328 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @01:49PM (#52511809) Homepage

    Sounds good for outdoor use, but above 10Ghz the signal starts behaving more like infrared than microwave and is going to struggle to get through walls I think.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Seriously you will still get ripped off royally by the cellphone carriers, who will charge you over $100, for a network speed you'll never get with less than 5GB of bandwidth per month. So this means nothing.

  • by ArhcAngel ( 247594 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @02:07PM (#52511961)
    The FCC needs to take back control of all spectrum and assign one company (fully regulated) to implement the towers/technology then let the providers lease space on the towers for their customers. They now compete on service and can't play games with throttling streaming competitors.
  • Displaced services (Score:5, Informative)

    by Solandri ( 704621 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @02:12PM (#52512015)
    Based on the latest FCC spectrum chart [doc.gov], it looks like the displaced services are:
    • Earth to space satellite comms (27.5 - 29.5 GHz)
    • Space research (37.0 - 38.6 GHz)
    • Space to earth satellite comms (37.5 - 40.0 GHz)
    • Inter-satellite comms (64.0 - 71.0 GHz)
    • Earth exploration and space research (65.0 - 66.0 GHz)
    • Radio navigation (66.0 - 71.0 GHz)

    Although Summary makes it sound like this is entirely a 5G thing, the unlicensed 64-71 GHz band suffers from high attenuation due to rain and oxygen [wikipedia.org], and aren't useful for distances more than about 1 mile. So this spectrum is clearly aimed at higher speed wifi (multi-gigabit).

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Does this mean there will finally be decent wireless broadband in rural areas?

  • by denis-The-menace ( 471988 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @02:48PM (#52512331)

    If it was LOWER than 2.4GHz then yes.

    If instead of selling off *ALL* analog TV channels to the highest bidder
    they would have kept ONE channel and made that unlicensed,
    NOW THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN EXCITING!

    Instead we get frequencies that are block-able by clouds.

  • by kheldan ( 1460303 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @03:45PM (#52512903) Journal
    At those wavelengths, aren't the transmitters going to need to output a rediculous amount of power in order to get any reasonable distance, and for that matter, don't the transmitters themsevles get even more inefficient? This on top of the obvious attenuation problem from just about anything, including raindrops?
  • I'm OK if they are forced to use it for >= 5G... if they won't provide 5G willingly, and are holding it hostage to a crippled net neutrality: sorry: I guess you don't get new spectrum.

    https://yro.slashdot.org/story... [slashdot.org]

    And yes, I'm aware, that most of the asses in the /. article are European, but some of them are the same companies in both the U.S. and Europe.

  • Home Depot outbids Netflix in FCC auction for rights to reflect
    orange light.

    Landmark Supreme Court ruling affirms government argument that the
    de Broglie equation grants FCC regulatory authority over solid matter.

    FCC announces new MassFi initiative, granting unlicensed access to
    a broad range of particle momentum.

    Loophole in FCC rules allow for MHz and Mc spectra to be auctioned separately.

    Negative frequ

  • by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Thursday July 14, 2016 @07:41PM (#52514995)
    Of course, it won't penetrate a piece of paper, but what the hey?

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