Former FCC Chairman Says 5G Networks Will Take Different Forms
The wireless network of the future may be very different from the networks of today, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt said in a letter he plans to file with a presentation at the FCC. Some 5G networks “might be owned…
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and operated by the carriers we know today. Indeed these firms may be the best at deploying 5G networks,” Hundt wrote. “But the network architectures of 5G will vary according to the uses of those networks. They will be versioned to specific ends. … Like so many markets, the ability to learn about customers is now an essential feature of retailing, and translating that to network deployment we can see that homogeneous, one size fits all networks are the past. In the future every end use will get the network architecture optimally suited for it.” Hundt has done work for Ligado Networks, which is seeking to convert satellite spectrum to terrestrial use for wireless broadband. Hundt said he plans to file the letter and presentation in docket 14-177. The fifth generation of wireless is a game changer, Hundt said. The FCC “faces the challenge and opportunity of helping to shape a new network -- a combination of digitization, phased array antenna breakthroughs, new forms of managing electromagnetic waves, signal processing on a finger nail sized chip, distributed data centers housing more information than any book-lined library, sensors and beacons operating on the bare suspicion of battery power, and many other inventions.”