The White House today announced 100 megahertz of ideal midrange spectrum will be made available for commercial entities to deploy fifth-generation networks. Critics say the determination should be double that amount.
“We have identified 100 megahertz of critically needed midband spectrum that can be made available for commercial 5G purposes,” Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios said. “Importantly, this particular part of the band, between 3450 and 3550 megahertz has been identified because it can be made available without sacrificing our nation’s great military and national security capabilities.”
Kratsios and Defense Department Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy briefed reporters on the development Monday, describing an intense work period between the military services, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Telecommunications Information Administration.
“The 100 megahertz we identified we made available for contiguous, coast-to-coast, 5G deployment at full commercial power levels,” Kratsios said. “This process reflects the fastest transfer of federal spectrum to commercial use in history.”
Deasy said the findings leveraged technical work that had been done by the NTIA to show the feasibility of spectrum sharing with military services in the midband range, which is said to have a “goldilocks” quality because it can carry data at optimum range and speed.
But in a July 6 tweet, Republican Federal Communications Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, who has long joined Democrats in pushing for incumbent federal users of spectrum to make more of the finite resource available for commercial use, said the NTIA finding didn’t reflect popular opinion.
“NTIA’s 3.1 to 3.55 GHz report is weak & harms US 5G readiness,” O’Rielly wrote. “Consensus is top 100 should be cleared for commercial licenses, as should second 100, with sharing below. Report extends decades old agency slow-rolling ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
