As numerous sovereign nations start to compete for a 5G push, the United States has revealed a plethora of strategic steps to maintain its leadership rank. Recently, President Trump along with Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) Chairman Ajit Pai provided a sneak peek at these strategies that bring the telecom industry to the center of attention.
The recent drive follows a report by industry trade association – Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association – explaining that both the United States and China are presently on equal foothold for 5G predisposition. With a complete, top-down strategy, the United States was able to facilitate the method to set up the needed infrastructure and back it up with trial and launching of latest networks in significant locations.
Expanding Rural Internet Connectivity
To increase rural connectivity velocity, FCC has chosen to invest USD 20.4 billion over the subsequent decade to strengthen high-speed broadband networks. The concentrated initiative, entitled as the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, is expected to benefit up to 4 million homes and businesses in the rural regions. This, in turn, is expected to spearhead innovations in the farming business, leveraging 5G sensors, cloud computing, and AI techniques to boost farm composition.
FCC will take support to a reversed auction system to provide funds to rural service givers supporting the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and connect the digital rift. The areas available for the new auction will accommodate those without passage to high-speed service, basically in the range of 3 Mbps upstream and 25 Mbps downstream. Companies like T-Mobile US, Inc., the United States Cellular Corporation, and CenturyLink, Inc. are likely to benefit on this enterprise for rural broadband augmentation.
5G Spectrum Disposal
At the corresponding time, FCC declared that the third round of 5G spectrum auction is all set to take place making more spectrum usable for super-fast 5G connectivity. The imperative move seems to be the requirement of the hour with nations vying a more magnificent piece in this market to have a governmental, economic and technological superiority.
The FCC has previously auctioned 1,550 megahertz of the spectrum since 2018 to promote 5G connectivity for retail wireless providers. The latest auction will be the biggest with 3,400 megahertz spectrum up for snatches in three separate spectrum bands — 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz. Big telecom service providers like Sprint Corporation, Verizon Communications Inc., and AT&T Inc. will unquestionably attempt to outdo each other and obtain a more significant market percentage in the upcoming auction as they proceed to deploy 5G service in major U.S. cities.
Promoting Privatization of 5G Network
As the telecom service providers gain influence, regular investments are expected to upgrade the systems with state-of-the-art technology. Dismissing widespread considerations that the government aims to nationalize these leading priority networks, Trump stated that the administration has no such policies and would preferably encourage privatization for fast policy action. As the fight for 5G supremacy increases, various nations are increasingly incorporating innovative avenues to outguess rivals. It prevails to be seen whether the U.S. obtains the coveted technological upper-hand in this fight with a concentrate road map.
