FCC Gets Ready for Third Major 5G Auction of Millimeter Wave Spectrum

The Federal Communications Commission is planning its third 5G spectrum auction (Auction 103), representing capacity in the upper 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz spectrum.bands will be the largest spectrum auction in U.S.  history.

The two-stage auction proposal will first offer offer 100 megahertz blocks of spectrum licensed by Partial Economic Area service area.

The bidding procedure proposed offers  generic spectrum blocks in two categories—one for 37 GHz and 39 GHz, and one for 47 GHz—in each PEA.

Those bids will help determine Incentive payments will be paid due to  incumbent licensees in the 39 GHz band that opt to relinquish their spectrum usage rights.

The second phase would allow bidding for frequency-specific license assignments, while ensuring contiguous block assignments, the FCC says.

The FCC also moved to open up 50-GHz frequencies for satellite use.

Altogether, new millimeter wave spectrum in the 28 GHz band, 24 GHz spectrum,  37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz bands will add nearly 5 GHz of new communications spectrum capacity, dwarfing existing allocations for mobile communications.

The FCC further is looking to release spectrum in the 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, and 3.7-4.2 GHz bands, adding as much as an additional  844 megahertz for 5G deployments.

Meanwhile, the FCC also is acting to improve use of low-band spectrum in the 600 MHz, 800 MHz, and 900 MHz bands.

Also, new bands of unlicensed spectrum are coming in the 6 GHz and above 95 GHz bands.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai also backs a $20.4 billion rural broadband fund spending about $2 billion a year that could connect up to four million homes and small businesses over the next ten years at speeds far above the 10 Mbps to 25 Mbps ranges supported in the recent past.

In 2015, the USF's Connect America Fund (CAF) awarded $9 billion for rural broadband deployment—$1.5 billion annually for six years—to connect 3.6 million homes and businesses.

Carriers that accepted the CAF money are required to finish the broadband deployments by the end of 2020. Pai's proposed Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will be the follow-on program, presumably in the same areas.