US Risks 'Missed Opportunity' Without Enough Midband for 5G, CTIA Says

Though it's not clear how much midband spectrum 5G will require, the U.S. is clearly lagging compared with midband availability in other nations, said CTIA President Meredith Baker at a Media Institute event Wednesday. When we asked her what's needed at minimum, she said the possibility of 180 MHz from the C band, as proposed by the C-Band Alliance (CBA), and 70 MHz from the 3.5 GHz band would still leave the U.S. 50 MHz shy of the global average of what other nations have dedicated to 5G.

China by 2020 will have 500 MHz of midband dedicated to 5G, Baker said: "Let's not miss this [C-band] opportunity." Asked about the odds of repurposing the 3450-3550 MHz band, she said she hopes NTIA is "taking that seriously."

Midband is "the Goldilocks of 5G spectrum" due to its capacity and coverage, Baker said. She said opening up the C band would be "a great start" but also is a possible "missed opportunity." She said spectrum availability is the big remaining barrier to 5G, especially given tax code changes and infrastructure regulatory revisions that have been completed. The U.S. needs a clear five-year schedule of future spectrum auctions, Baker said. That would "create a significant spectrum [economic] stimulus," she said.

The U.S. a year ago was clearly trailing China and South Korea in 5G, when looking at deployments, spectrum allocations and unfavorable siting rules, Baker said. Today, the U.S. enjoys more commercial 5G deployments -- with rollouts in 10 states -- than any other nation, she said. Meanwhile, the FCC and 21 states have updated their siting rules, and the agency is in the midst of its second spectrum auction in a year, she said. "Last year was really a great year for the wireless industry."

The media will be a big beneficiary of 5G, Baker said. She said video soon will be 80 percent of all mobile traffic, with mobile live video a big driver of the growth. She said a Disney-Verizon partnership on 5G (see 1901090019) should lead to new consumer apps and distribution, and 5G could simplify media operations by making coverage of big sporting events easier. She said 4G didn't enable the kind of 4K streaming with which Fox and Intel have been experimenting (see 1805150019).

The CBA said Wednesday it named Peter Pitsch, formerly of Intel, head of advocacy and government affairs (see 1903270063). It said its advocacy focus now "naturally shifts to building consensus amongst the other many stakeholders." Preston Padden had done that job before stepping down (see 1903050038).

Asked about when CBA members might be able to free up spectrum beyond what it's already discussing, CBA emailed us it didn't have a sense of time frame "other than it could be possible." One issue is when/if high efficiency video coding develops the necessary technical stability and reliable performance, it said. Another is the open question of what linear video distribution will look like in coming years, with ultra HD perhaps driving demand for more capacity, while conversely demand could be less with a growth in over-the-top video distribution, it said.