FCC Inaction on C Band Has Put US Behind in 5G Race, Wheeler Says

The U.S. is stuck in the starting blocks of the 5G race as it awaits an FCC decision on how to free up C-band spectrum, former Chairman Tom Wheeler blogged Friday for the Brookings Institution. He said European nations over the past year have done 5G spectrum auctions, but a C-band decision looks to come late this year. He said substantial time has been spent on debates about various potential auction processes, but the technical specifics of what to auction in terms of such issues as power levels, out-of-band emission levels and geographic and spectrum license sizes are far more difficult. "We are behind where we would have been if the FCC had stepped up and done their public interest job in the first place," he said. The agency didn't comment.