Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) have introduced a bill that would free up more spectrum for wireless broadband using a sharing approach.

The Spectrum Innovation Act (H.R. 5378) would free up midband spectrum for mobile broadband and authorize "opportunistic and other flexible uses."

It would make at least 200 MHz of spectrum in the 3.1-3.45 GHz band available for non-federal use (it is currently used by the Defense Department), shared federal and non-federal use, or a combination of the two, with an incentive payment to federal users for facilitating sharing. It also authorizes the president to “withdraw” any federal spectrum assignment to accommodate shared or non-Federal use so long as it does not compromise the federal user.

The reclaimed spectrum would be put up for auction. 

The bill would also require a study identifying even more frequencies in the band that could be freed up.

“[I]t’s essential to make as much spectrum as possible available for improved broadband service for consumers and to promote new, innovative uses of our airwaves,” Doyle, chairman of the House Communications Subcommittee, said of the bill. “The Spectrum Innovation Act would do both.“  

”We stand at a pivotal moment in the development and deployment of next generation networks; the Spectrum Innovation Act will unleash the economic potential of this valuable midband spectrum and give us the tools necessary to meet the communications challenges of tomorrow,” Matsui said.

“The Spectrum Innovation Act of 2021 demonstrates a balanced approach to making critical midband spectrum in the 3.1-3.45 GHz band available for commercial use,” NCTA-The Internet & Television Association said.

“In consultation with relevant federal partners, the legislation would allow this band to be modeled after the successful 3.5-GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service shared-use approach, which has been proven to protect the important federal uses of the band, garnered an unprecedented number of auction participants and supports a wide range of use cases,” NCTA said.

The percentage of respondents who said their primary online access devices is mobile has effectively doubled since 2013, and many of those are using mobile as a substitute, rather than a complement, to wired broadband service.

That is according to a new Pew Research Center study, which found that 37% us their smartphone to go online, compared with 19% in 2013.

The trend is driven by younger demos, with a majority (58%) of those 18-29 says the mostly go online using their phone. But the 30-49 demo is not far behind at 47%, which, again, is essentially double 2013's 24%.

And among the 27% of respondents who said they don't have a fixed broadband connection, 45% say that is because their mobile device fills the broadband bill. According to the study, "the share of non-broadband users who say their smartphone is the most important reason for not having a high-speed internet connection where they live has nearly doubled over the same time period, from 12% to 23%."

At the same time, affordability is not as big a factor in not having a home fixed broadband connection. The study found that the percentage of people who cited cost as the reason dropped from 33% to 21%.

But 80% of those who do not now have a home fixed broadband connection say they are not interested in getting one.

The study was based on interviews conducted Jan. 8 to Feb. 7, 2019, among 1,502 U.S.adults 18-plus. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.85 percentage points.

The U.S. broke into the global top ten with respect to average internet connection speeds in Q1, according to Akamai’s latest State of the Internet report.

The U.S. averaged 18.7 Mbps, putting it at No. 10 globally, up 22% year-on-year, and up 8.8% versus the previous quarter. In Akamai's report for Q4 2016, the U.S. averaged 17.2 Mbps, good for 14th at the time.

South Korea had the highest average connection speed in Q1, at 28.6 Mbps, followed by Norway (23.5 Mbps), Sweden (22.5 Mbps), Hong Kong (21.9 Mbps) and Switzerland (21.7 Mbps).

The global average for Q1 clocked in at 7.2 Mbps, up 15% year-on-year and 2.3% quarter-on-quarter.

Global average peak speeds hit 44.6 Mbps in Q1, up 28% YoY. Akamai said Singapore clocked in with the best average peak speed (184.5 Mbps), followed by Macao (132 Mbps), Mongolia (131.1 Mbps) Hong Kong (129.5 mbps) and South Korea 121 Mbps.

The U.S. was 16th in the peak average speed category, at 86.5 Mbps, up 28% versus the year-ago period.

Global adoption of speeds of at least 25 Mbps rose 42% to 12%. South Korea led with 40% adoption of 25 Mbps or more.

The U.S. was 10th, with 21% adoption of 25 Mbps-plus connections, up 65% YoY. Washington, D.C., held on to the top spot in the U.S. with 38% adoption in the category.

Notably, 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up are currently the speeds required to quality as “broadband,” in the eyes of the FCC.

On the mobile side, 32 countries/regions had an average mobile connection speed at or exceeding 10 Mbps, up from 30 in the previous quarter, Akamai said.

The U.S. averaged 10.7 Mbps for mobile, tops in its region, well down from the 26 Mbps average mobile connection speed seen in the U.K.

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies present "a unique opportunity to radically expand the capacity and flexibility of wireless networks, which will have profound implications for broadband competition and productivity growth," according to a report published on Thursday.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) evaluation "5G and Next Generation Wireless: Implications for Policy and Competition" urges that national and local  policymakers "should support the development' of next-generation networks by ensuring new spectrum is available and by streamlining deployment of physical infrastructure.

Related:ITIF Report: FCC's 5G Efforts Should Focus on Spectrum, Not Standards

"We will continue to see additional competition in providing broadband access, as the performance of wired and wireless networks converges," ITIF said. "5G networks will also enable a new level of IoT connections, touching key verticals throughout our economy."

ITIF's "5G" triangle (see illustration) focuses on the "confluence of technologies is enabling an adaptable network that effectively provides numerous new functions." It singles out "enhanced broadband," "Massive Internet of Things " and "Critical Communications" as the three major categories for 5G, pointing out the very different capacity, reliability and accessibility of each application.

"Video places an order of magnitude larger demand than most other uses on the capacity of networks, so to enhance mobile broadband, end-user download speed remains the main driver," says the report, written by Doug Brake, a telecommunications policy analyst at ITIF. "For mobile to become a more robust competitor for wireline broadband networks, speeds will need to increase, and in a way that is economical as to see larger monthly data plans."

ITIF expects that "with the right policies in place, 5G will provide wildly increased capacity, allowing for super-high definition streaming of augmented reality; far more numerous, less costly connections, supporting a boom to IoT; and highly reliable connections, enabling critical communications and large-scale industrial automation."

Citing existing circumstances, the report acknowledges that pole attachment and other infrastructure policies for wired communications must be addressed in overall 5G planning. And as part of its extensive contemplation about standards and competitiveness, ITIF warns that "too strong a government hand in guiding technical standards, especially when tied to arbitrary deadlines, can lead to sub-optimal outcomes."

At a Thursday seminar accompanying the release of the ITIF report, officials from Verizon, Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung and other companies evaluated business approaches to 5G.

Charla Rath, vice president-wireless policy development at Verizon, affirmed that, "We have made clear that we want to take an aggressive stance on 5G."

"It's going to be a transition of ...networks of networks," Rath said "It's going to be a lot of different spectrum,"  including licensed and unlicensed spectrum. She noted that "IoT is increasingly about video."

Peter Pitsch, executive director of communications policy and associate general counsel at Intel, characterized the introduction of 5G: "We're going to get spectrum in the marketplace in a flexible way."

"We're going to need low, medium and high spectrum, not just for capacity but because of the differences of capabilities ... for applications," Pitsch explained.

Noting that he's often a critic of FCC spectrum policies, he complimented chairman Tom Wheeler's "astounding effort" to make spectrum available, noting that 28 GHz and 37-40 GHz  will be licensed. Pitsch predicted that because things are moving so quickly already, there will be fast action making  65 -71 GHz bands available on an unlicensed basis.  He said he expects the FCC will make licenses available "in a very flexible, investment-friendly way...[for] long-term licenses with reasonable technical limits."

The FCC should continue freeing up high-band spectrum for next-generation 5G mobile broadband rather than control the standards-setting process, and local governments should help streamline the deployment of new infrastructure.

Those are the key policy takeaways from a new report being released Thursday (June 30) by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Policymakers on every level of the government should aim to make infrastructure deployment as efficient as possible to see the flourishing of 5G networks," said report author Doug Brake, a telecom policy analyst with ITIF.

"Given the fact that many of the technological components of 5G are still in flux, that deployment scenarios are still being explored, and that there is still a good deal of gas in the LTE tank, government action around 5G should be more stage setting than full industrial policymaking," Brake said in the report. "There is certainly a role for government in encouraging 5G to flourish, but industry-led standard setting better allows discovery of new technologies and a more nuanced understanding of what areas are most economical to explore."

Related:Hillary Clinton says she will push for 5G.

Brake said that given the explosion of data traffic, particularly bandwidth-hungry video, speeds will have to increase if wireless is to be a more robust competitor to wireline. For that to happen, wireless only has a few levers to pull. Finding more spectrum is one, another is increasing capacity by improving spectrum efficacy.

But he says there are limits to increasing that efficiency and network engineers are close to butting up against them. "As hard as getting Congress to pass a new law can be, bending the laws of physics is even harder. There are also trade-offs in any system designed—a protocol designed purely for maximizing throughput may not handle other usage scenarios as well," he said.

Brake gives the FCC high marks for 5G stage-setting so far. "The FCC deserves credit for moving quickly to get high-band spectrum into the hands of innovators, and for not being beholden to international bodies, such as the ITU, who are slow to allocate this spectrum to mobile," he said.

The FCC has set aside 30 MHz of low-band spectrum in the broadcast incentive auction that can potentially be auctioned to competitive carriers at discount prices. But Brake cautions against that model for high-band spectrum.

"Regulators should exercise caution in setting reserve prices or payments when it comes to auctioning high-band spectrum. Unnecessarily high auction prices discourage investment in new, unproven technologies that will have significant deployment costs of their own."