“The FCC will consider making new bands of licensed and unlicensed radio spectrum available for 5G data networks, Chairman Tom Wheeler announced today,” Tom Brant reports for PC Magazine.
“His proposal would allow 5G communications to operate in a 14GHz unlicensed band, in addition to opening up some licensed high-frequency spectrum in blocks of 200MHz,” Brant reports. “If the FCC approves it in a vote scheduled for July 14, it will be welcome news to cell phone providers and chip manufacturers, which can take advantage of the higher spectrum thanks to advances in antenna technology.”
“High-frequency transmissions and milimeter wave technology are prized for their low latency, which makes websites load faster and improves the quality of VoIP calls, among other benefits,” Brant reports. “Carriers and antenna manufacturers are already testing lower-latency, high-frequency transmissions. AT&T and Verizon started last fall, and Google and Facebook are also evaluating the technology. While much of the focus of those tests is boosting speed — AT&T said it has reached speeds above 10 gigabits per second — Intel is touting 5G’s ability to intelligently prioritize critical but low-bandwidth emergency communications over bandwidth hogs like music streaming.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, please!