The race for mobile operators to gain spectrum is competitive. Each carrier wants to bolster its network to add speed, reliability and expansive coverage. And as device technology is on the increase, and the number of people with LTE-capable devices is growing, network technology needs to match the demand. And it could lead the FCC to start looking at alternatives to the current bandwidths being used.
Most mobile spectrum, as it stands, ranges between 600MHz and 3GHz. But in an interview with Mobile World, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel states that the commission needs “to be more creative“. Adding that “maybe it’s now time to look low, such as 400MHz, and really high, such as 60GHz. There are different use cases in different network topologies we can develop, and different ways to take advantage of different spectrum bands.”
As we know, T-Mobile is currently deploying and testing its own low-band 700MHz network, and it’s going to be heavily involved in next year’s low-spectrum auction, and this year’s AWS-3 auction in a bid to get a network that’s as large as the Big Two’s but also much faster, and more reliable.
Whether or not the FCC does anything about these plans is yet to be seen. There are advantages and disadvantages to using ultra-high and ultra-low frequencies. But if we get to a point where there are no more airwaves left to use in the current range of bands, we may not have a choice but add both higher and lower frequencies.
Source: MWC Mobile World