WRC Wasn't Sweeping Success for U.S.: American Action Forum
The American Action Forum questioned how the U.S. really fared during last year’s World Radiocommunication Conference. “Delegations from across the world largely adopted China’s spectrum approach in the mid-band, allocating the upper part of the 6 GHz band for 5G…
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services,” a report released Tuesday said. Jeffrey Westling, director-technology and innovation policy, is its author. While the U.S. has allocated the entire 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, actions at the last WRC may keep other countries from following the U.S.’s lead, it said. “Countries don’t have to allocate the band for 5G but can’t allocate spectrum in a manner that would cause harmful interference to 5G operations in neighboring jurisdictions,” the paper said: “Equipment manufacturers will have less incentive, and potential profit, in designing and manufacturing additional unlicensed equipment that operates in the upper portion of the band, as fewer countries will allow the use of that technology.” The U.S. struggled to persuade nations to adopt its approach “because it lacks a robust plan to commercialize spectrum in the mid-band for exclusive licenses, shared models, or even more unlicensed,” the paper argues: “Leading into the conference, the only mid-band spectrum teed up for commercialization was 3.1–3.45 GHz, and the DOD pushed back on efforts to allow commercialization of the band,” and without auction authority the U.S. “lacked stability in spectrum policy, perhaps concerning potential allies that desired a robust plan for mid-band.”