WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators Thursday opened the door to the next generation of wireless services, making the U.S. the first nation to allocate a wide portion of airwaves to deliver superfast 5G access.
The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to authorize mobile use in the high-frequency spectrum that had only limited uses until recent technological advances.
The agency also laid the groundwork to auction a large amount of that spectrum to wireless companies while allowing more open or shared uses of the rest -- all with flexible rules in hopes of duplicating the regulatory environment that helped fuel innovation in the existing fourth-generation networks.
"By not getting involved in the technologies that will use the spectrum, we're turning loose the incredible innovators of this country. ... And with our oversight to protect competition we ensure that the forces that drive that innovation and improved consumer service are alive and well," said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.
"This is a big day for our nation," he said.
The fifth generation of mobile service since the first bulky cellular phones were introduced in the early 1980s promises to deliver data at least 10 times faster than today's 4G networks.
"These are huge blocks of spectrum that will deliver amazing applications to Americans," said Meredith Attwell Baker, president of CTIA, a trade group for wireless companies including the top four U.S. carriers -- AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. "This is a critical first step to ensure the U.S. is in a position to lead the world in 5G."
All four top U.S. mobile carriers have announced plans to test 5G technology, with partners including Cisco Systems Inc., Ericsson AB, Nokia OYJ, Qualcomm Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Connections are projected to double by 2020 and reach 500 billion 10 years later.
"We're talking about super-fast data rates, super-low latency: the kind of wireless anyone would want that's only a dream today," said Dean Brenner, senior vice president for government affairs at Qualcomm Inc. The chipmaker based in San Diego joined with Intel Corp., Verizon, Samsung, Nokia and Ericsson in asking the FCC to allow higher power for base stations than the agency initially proposed.
It's not entirely clear what uses may emerge, said Brenner.
"When we were devising 4G no one was thinking of Uber, no one in Washington was thinking of Snapchat or Instagram," Brenner said. "The truth is, we don't know."
Qualcomm and competitors will work to deploy the technology as soon as possible, Brenner said. "This is going to be hyper-competitive, working with tremendous urgency," he said.
Experts said 5G is the key to expanded wireless uses, such as autonomous vehicles, Internet-connected appliances, virtual reality and yet-to-be-imagined applications. The technology also is seen as crucial to extending high-speed Internet access to rural areas that are expensive to serve with cable or fiber.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said "there is seemingly no limit on how what we refer to as 5G could impact our everyday existence."
"A refrigerator that not only alerts you to a near-empty egg carton, but automatically adds that item to a virtual shopping list, enabling a delivery to your door by week's end, without any action from you," she said. "Or a piece of equipment in a factory that automatically pings a repair person at headquarters about an issue well before the machine shuts down. Or remote surgery being performed in the Alaskan bush by a pre-eminent surgeon thousands of miles away."
The airwaves set aside by the FCC previously had not been thought to be useful for commercial wireless services and have had limited uses, such as satellite transmissions.
But technological advances are making it possible to use that spectrum, which can carry large amounts of data much faster.
"We're talking about a network that is 10 times faster than your current network and supports hundreds of times more devices," Baker said.
"It's five times more responsive. It's going to enable real-time services that are really going to unlock potential for consumers and the Internet of things," she said.
Baker said that an autonomous vehicle using 4G technology takes 4.6 feet to stop once a signal is sent on a wireless connection. With 5G, the car would stop after traveling just an inch.
Still, there are limits.
The high-frequency airwaves can carry signals only over shorter distances that require more but smaller receivers to knit together networks. For those reasons, the FCC has been trying to streamline the processes for approvals of 5G base stations, which could be as small as smoke detectors.
AT&T and Verizon are planning 5G trials next year, although the service probably won't be available to most consumers until 2020.
But with South Korea, Japan and other nations studying the deployment of 5G networks, the FCC said the U.S. needed to act to maintain the nation's edge in mobile technology.
"The race to 5G is on," said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. "But for 5G technology to take off, for the United States to win this race, we need spectrum -- and lots of it."
But all is not smooth sailing on the path to the wireless future.
Satellite companies are concerned about interference from new mobile uses in the high-frequency airwaves. And public interest groups want more of the airwaves to be available for unlicensed uses such as Wi-Fi instead of being auctioned to wireless companies.
The FCC said its new rules set up spectrum-sharing arrangements that would ensure that satellite and mobile users could co-exist.
But the satellite industry is concerned, given the billions of dollars invested by Boeing and other companies in its networks.
"While we certainly believe that sharing is possible, we want to make sure there isn't interference with existing and planned satellite operations," said Tom Stroup, president of the Satellite Industry Association, a trade group.
Information for this article was contributed by Jim Puzzanghera of the Los Angeles Times and by Todd Shields, Scott Moritz and Ian King of Bloomberg News.
Business on 07/15/2016