FiberTower Opens Millimeter Wave Spectrum Technology Lab

FiberTower said it opened a millimeter wave spectrum technology laboratory in Silver Spring, Maryland. The lab will focus on "research and development in the wide-area licensed millimeter wave bands, and is especially focused on the revolutionary small cell backhaul and 5G mobile access technologies that are emerging in these bands,” the company said in a news release. “These bands are key to current 4G and LTE small infrastructure proliferation, and due to their low-latency and high spectrum re-use capabilities, such millimeter wave enabled sites will be the core infrastructure sites from which 5G operations will be deployed.” At its October meeting, the FCC approved a notice of inquiry on new technology developments that could increase the viability of operations above 24 GHz (see 1410170048) .