NYU Wireless pushes for FCC to act fast on releasing mmW spectrum

With a February 17 reply comment deadline coming up on the Federal Communications Commission's Notice of Inquiry on the use of spectrum above 24 GHz, researchers at New York University (NYU)-Wireless are once again sounding the horn that the FCC has the power to put the US in the driver's seat when it comes to the race to 5G. World-renowned wireless researcher Ted Rappaport, founder and director of NYU Wireless, who's been driving research into the use of millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum, acknowledged that some parties have filed comments in the FCC's proceeding urging the FCC to keep the focus on existing and lower band spectrum.

There's a belief held by some that mobile services are best served below 6 GHz. When using the millimeter wave frequencies, like 24 GHz, 30 GHz and above, "you can carry so much more bandwidth than you can in today's wireless channels," he said. "You can imagine downloading movies in fractions of a second or being able to carry all the information you'd ever need for your entire college curriculum in a download that takes a couple of seconds... Information beaming at rates you'd never have thought."