New Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Chief Says World Watching US Spectrum-Sharing Work on 5G

The 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band is unlikely to play a big role in Wi-Fi and instead will provide the unlicensed component of 5G, Martha Suarez, new president of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, said in an interview. Suarez recently joined DSA after serving as general director of the National Spectrum Agency in Colombia. DSA’s global summit is this week in Washington.

“The Wi-Fi industry knows what spectrum it wants” and isn’t looking at CBRS, Suarez said. Instead, the Wi-Fi Alliance and others are focused on the 2.4 and 5 and 6 GHz bands, with some high-frequency use in the 60 GHz band, she said. CBRS is ideally suited for 5G and 5G handsets, she said.

Other countries are looking to the U.S. as a leader in sharing technologies, Suarez said. “The U.S. has been doing a lot of innovation and that’s great,” she said: “In the U.S., there is a very active market, so the market has been requesting more and more and more spectrum.” The U.S. and the FCC are looking at sharing techniques “no one else in the world is considering,” she said.

What the U.S. is doing in CBRS, with dynamic sharing of the spectrum with U.S. Navy systems, is a “great example” for the rest of the world, Suarez said. “Other countries are skeptical,” she said. “We can show them it’s working with even a very complex scenario.” Suarez hopes to see the first unlicensed roll out of CBRS this year, with licensed use to follow in 2020. Lots of equipment will quickly available in the CBRS band since it's allocated to 5G in many other countries, Suárez said.

DSA supports use of the 5.9 and 6 GHz bands for unlicensed. The 5.9 GHz band “could be very useful for Wi-Fi,” Suarez said. DSA hopes the FCC will release an NPRM on the 5.9 GHz band soon. “We are very interested in having that discussion,” she said.

Suarez said the 6 GHz band will allow the wide channels required by Wi-Fi 6, the new generation of Wi-Fi. DSA members are still looking at the best approach to share the band while protecting incumbents. The FCC is considering “which are the right sharing conditions and which part of the band will have those conditions,” she said. The FCC understands why the band is important for Wi-Fi, but DSA needs to do more to explain the use cases that require wider channels, she said. Wider channels are important for medical, agricultural and library use of Wi-Fi and will create “new use cases,” Suárez said.

In the 6 GHz band, “we are sure that we have the techniques and the technology to protect incumbents,” Suárez said: “We just have to find the right conditions.” The 3.5 GHz band will show dynamic sharing works, she said.

Suárez said as a former regulator, she's sympathetic to the FCC. “When you are on the government side, it’s extremely hard,” she said: “You want to make the best decision for the public interest … but also you want people to invest because otherwise you cannot have those networks.” For the government, “it’s extremely complicated and I know how hard it is,” she said. “You’re trying to go fast,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s not as fast as you want it to be.” The FCC is very open-minded and it putting different solutions in the table, but has a lot of work to do, she said.

NTIA’s engineering lab shared spectrum access system lab test reports with the companies that participated in spectrum sharing testing at the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, NTIA said Tuesday. “The reports are a critical part of advancing the sharing model” in the CBRS band, NTIA said: “The reports include a comprehensive analysis and interpretation of the test results to ensure accuracy and consistency. This work adds to already substantial work in progress in developing the 3.5 GHz band, which is prime mid-band spectrum that offers a mix of capacity and coverage capabilities.”