FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has a plan to free up spectrum for 5G wireless service.
The Federal Communications Commission next month will vote on a proposal to help identify and free up wireless spectrum at very high frequencies that could be used to power fifth-generation, or 5G, cellular networks. The agency will do as it did with the development of 4G LTE and stay out of the way of industry innovators as they define and develop 5G technology, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in announcing the proposal Monday.
"Turning innovators loose is far preferable to expecting committees and regulators to define the future," he said. "Instead, we will make ample spectrum available and then rely on a private sector-led process for producing technical standards best suited for those frequencies and use cases."
[...] 5G speeds could be 10 to 100 times higher than those of today's 4G networks. Even though standards for 5G have yet to be developed, the technology is expected to enable everything from self-driving cars to remote surgeries done via robots to school field trips through the human body made possible by virtual reality gear.
The hype around 5G has been building over the past year, with wireless operators like AT&T and Verizon already demonstrating the technology and promising a limited service roll out as soon as this year.
The FCC's proposal to free up additional spectrum is the first step in a long process to make sure wireless operators get the airwaves they need to make these services a reality. The chairman's promise to take a hands-off approach in developing policy is a welcome signal to wireless operators that the government won't be a roadblock.
[...] Very high frequency spectrum known as millimeter waves are key to the development of 5G because these frequencies can carry large amounts of data and transfer signals with low latency -- that is, with minimal delay. But there are technical challenges in using this spectrum. Signals transmitted over very high frequencies can only travel short distances and have difficulty penetrating obstacles, which makes designing such networks tricky.
Some of the spectrum that could be used for 5G is currently used for satellite communications and for navigation services like GPS. As part of this proposal, the FCC will work with satellite providers to ensure the spectrum can be shared with wireless broadband companies that want to use it to build terrestrial 5G networks.
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Intel last week announced that its first commercial 5G modem, the XMM 8060, is now under development and will ship in a couple of years. As part of the announcement, the company reiterated its plans to offer a top-to-bottom XMM 8000 family of 5G modems for various applications, including smartphones, PCs, buildings and vehicles. In addition, the company announced its XMM 7660 Cat-19 LTE modem that supports download speeds of up to 1.6 Gbps, which will be available in 2019.
At present, Intel's 5G Mobile Trial Platform is used to test 5G technologies in different locations around the world. For example, one of such devices installed aboard the Tallink Silja Europa cruise ship is used to enable Internet connectivity to passengers while in port in Tallinn, Estonia, (where another 5G MTP is installed) and the nearby area. Meanwhile, Intel's 5G Modem for client applications is evolving as well. Intel said that devices powered by the silicon can now make calls over the 28 GHz band. The 5G MTP will be used for its purposes for a while and will even gain new capabilities over time, but the company is working on a family of commercial modems that will be used for mass applications sometimes in 2019 and onwards. The Intel XMM 8000-series multi-mode modems will operate in both sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave global spectrum bands, combining support for existing and next-gen radios. Intel does detail the whole lineup two years before the launch but indicates that it will be able to address smartphones, PCs, vehicles, and fixed wireless consumer premise equipment (CPE).
Previously: ITU Defines "5G" as up to 20 Gbps, 2018 Olympics Demo Planned
5G Gets a Shot in the Arm From the FCC
3GPP Sets 2018 as Freeze Date for 5G Air Interfaces
5G Draft Technical Requirements Announced
(Score: 1) by baldrick on Wednesday June 22 2016, @07:28AM
ever since marketing idiots started using 2.5G the whole thing has been meaningless
we should be sticking with the real acronyms GPRS , EDGE , HSPA , LTE
... I obey the Laws of Physics
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 22 2016, @07:51AM
I miss 4G WiMAX, because 4G LTE just isn't flaky enough to feel like wireless.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday June 22 2016, @02:08PM
This is NOT capitalism people. This is fascism.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2, Informative) by milsorgen on Wednesday June 22 2016, @07:31AM
I'd rather my router not be further locked down and would love to see more personal RF tech developed. We should stop giving this megacorps more and more spectrum, make them innovate with what they have while allowing a next generation of shortwave and CB to be created.
On the Oregon Coast, born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 22 2016, @07:38AM
why the hell would remote surgery be done via 5G rather than through a network cable?
if the surgeon is in a remote location, with no access to a good fiber connection, do they really have everything else that they would need? I mean... it should be some sort of scalpel for which the orientation and position in 3D space can be determined very accurately. Maybe a kinect thing and a real scalpel would work, but that would mean the doctor carries around the kinect with them all the time. The big problem with that is that the doctor actually relies on tactile feedback, and you can't get that this way.
if the patient is in a remote location, in what conditions would they be subjected to this operation? I mean... how many operations for which you need the surgeon to do it can be performed outside of a hospital? (I guess if the patient has someone with minimal medical training with them, they could be guided over the phone much more easily and the tactile feedback problem described above would be gone; this would obviously only work for stuff that can be done safely outside a hospital).
oh, and there's also the fact that the patient would need to be close to something that can be controled remotely by a surgeon, even though they're not close enough to a place with a cable network connection.
So... minor city in some 3rd world country, with no cable connection but 5G... 5G from what, since this is short range?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 22 2016, @09:00AM
> Even though standards for 5G have yet to be developed, the technology is expected to enable everything from self-driving cars to
> remote surgeries done via robots to school field trips through the human body made possible by virtual reality gear.
Right, all of this stuff is possible using regular WiFi (and as parent points out, remote surgery is for wifi). Why on earth would anyone do this with a mobile phone network? Think of applications which Joe Bloggs wants to do on the bus - listening to music, watching TV. I guess current tech is not good enough for streaming HD TV?
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday June 22 2016, @07:57AM
Wondering, shot in the arm, or cap in the ass: which is more likely to be fatal? Let us keep our idioms meme worthy, because in the Soviet Union, the arm shoots you!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 22 2016, @08:37AM
ArmInAss, this is what you've been preparing for, since you went to Gay Agent School.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 22 2016, @12:42PM
First i thought a gun shot too (shot in the arm), but the story is quite not what that would suggest. I think it means a syringe with some kind of medication in it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 22 2016, @01:23PM
So did I. And that's why it is a bad title. A good title doesn't mislead.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 22 2016, @08:40AM
> these frequencies can carry large amounts of data and transfer signals with low latency
WTF latency - now high freq rf has a different c (remember e=mc^2? c'mon)? The alternative isn't satcom; if this requires double the density of towers (shorter range) from an average of say 500 metres to 250 metres, that'd save ... 820ns of lag. Which is then reintroduced because there's a longer cable or microwave line (and even worse maybe a deeper hierarchy) to get to the same old destination in the end...
Bullshit meter so high, so so high!
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday June 22 2016, @01:27PM
No, see, it's all about the bit rate - double the bit rate, and the first bit takes half as long to transmit! I mean at 1Mbit/s you're talking 1000ns per bit of lag! Of course at 1Gbit/s you're only talking 1ns...
If I had to guess, the real issue (assuming it's not just the usual marketing BS) would be network architecture - assuming its packet oriented with error detection/correction your device effectively doesn't actually receive that first bit until the last bit has been received and verified. And if it has TCP-style repeat requests for irrecoverably corrupted packets that introduces additional unpredictable round trip delays.
Of course none of that has much to do with transmission frequency, but with 4G pretty much "locked in" now, a new low-architecture would pretty much require a new spectrum to operate in to avoid interference with the existing deployed infrastructure
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday June 22 2016, @05:45PM
WTF latency - now high freq rf has a different c
Bandwidth can affect latency.
Consider a packet switching network. Say, you have the bandwidth necessary to transfer 1 packet per second. If you get 5 packets in 1 second some of them are going to have to wait in the queue.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gravis on Wednesday June 22 2016, @10:00AM
Even though standards for 5G have yet to be developed, the technology is expected to enable everything from self-driving cars to remote surgeries done via robots to school field trips through the human body made possible by virtual reality gear.
Literally none of those things should be using 5G. cars computers shouldn't be connected to networks, remote surgeries should be done using fiber optic networks and VR gear doesn't need that kind of range.
You're killing me Tom, you're killing me and in the cases of the cars and remote surgery, possibly literally killing me.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday June 22 2016, @08:20PM
Did you expect them to just come-out and say the VR and self-driving cars they have in mind are soldiers sitting in a bunker and driving remote tanks and bi-pedal drone to disperse protestors half a continent away by transmitting 3d images and having 50ms latency?
Cause honest to FSM, I can't think of any other use for this kind of network capacities.
compiling...
(Score: 1) by letssee on Wednesday June 22 2016, @05:18PM
>As part of this proposal, the FCC will work with satellite providers to ensure the spectrum can be shared with wireless broadband >companies that want to use it to build terrestrial 5G networks.
Yeah right. Changing the laws of physics in the process? Satellite comms are very weak signals. Having terrestrial broadcasters in the same range is not going to work well.
Who will earn a lot of money auctioning off frequencies?