At MWC, Rosenworcel Looks Toward 6G, Pandora CEO Expects Big Radio Change

It’s not too early to think about 6G, said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel last week, making her the first FCC commissioner, by her account, to discuss sixth generation. “A few months ago, Google Trends rated the term 6G as the 17th most looked-up word in its search engine,” she said at Mobile World Congress Americas. “The minister of industry and information technology in China has already made the official pronouncement that the nation ‘will be first in 6G.’” A looming problem is how the U.S. government treats spectrum, scoring auctions and valuing licensed spectrum for the money it brings in to the Treasury, Rosenworcel said. “Over time, it will be especially challenging for unlicensed spectrum to make it through this filter.” Rosenworcel wants the FCC to make more use of incentive auctions, including for the 2.5 GHz band. She said the regulator’s overall approach on auctions must change. “We need to consider how the size, duration, and set of rights that come with a license can increase the range of actors willing to participate in our auctions. We need to put a premium on auctioning multiple bands at once, rather than offering them to market piecemeal, one at a time.” She expects many lessons to come from the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band once sharing starts there. Pandora CEO Roger Lynch said in a Friday keynote that AM/FM remains a “potent force,” with $15 billion in annual advertising revenue, but in the future many more people will stream their music than get it over the air. “The big change” to come is in terrestrial radio, with advertising shifting to streaming services, he said. Dominique Delport, president-international of Vice Media, told MWC that for the first time, Apple is pricing its new iPhones at a higher price point than iMacs. “Mobile is the first screen,” he said. “Facebook is a mobile company, with 92 percent of their revenue linked to mobile advertising. The shift happened.” Mobile is “the way we share our news, our lifestyle,” Delport said: “Social media is media” for younger people.