4 GHz position paper<\/a>.<\/p>\nAccording to Federated, the 4.4-4.94 GHz band represents the best opportunity for U.S. carriers to spread their RF wings and steer clear of the types of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) pitfalls that are rampant in the 3 GHz band.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that operators will enjoy the characteristics of 4 GHz,\u201d Federated Wireless CEO Iyad Tarazi told Fierce. \u201cIt’s very operator friendly. We’re beginning to build the industry momentum for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sizing up spectrum \u00a0<\/p>\n
Tarazi, who served as a VP of Network Technology Development and Integration at Sprint about 20 years ago, knows spectrum. When he was at Sprint, the 2.5 GHz spectrum was considered high-band spectrum \u2013 even higher than the 1.9 GHz PCS spectrum that today is considered \u201cmid-band\u201d spectrum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started working with 2.5, everybody told me: \u2018Don’t even work on it. It’s terrible.’ But by the time we started working on it to the time we deployed it, the technology caught up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere’s the way to think about it. The formula we used to use \u2013 every year or two, you get about three dB improvement in the technology that you deploy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That means better signals for everything from antennas to handsets. \u201cAll of these things help give you better coverage, better distance, better quality. Ultimately, technology gets better, so you can keep the same exact towers you have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nowadays, most of the 2.5 GHz spectrum is the U.S. in the hands of T-Mobile, which acquired Sprint. Verizon and AT&T are relying heavily on C-band spectrum, which is in the 3.7 GHz range, for their mid-band 5G airwaves. The lower 3 GHz is occupied by the DoD, which is in no hurry to leave.<\/p>\n
4 GHz fulfills mandate<\/p>\n
Given the fragmentation and limits of the 3 GHz band \u2013 and its desire to keep CBRS in tact at 3.55-3.7 GHz \u2013 Federated Wireless\u2019 newly released position paper argues that the 4 GHz band represents a \u201cclean-slate spectrum opportunity,\u2019 unlike the heavily encumbered 3 GHz band.<\/p>\n
In 4 GHz\u2019s favor: It\u2019s attractive for 6G because it\u2019s free of legacy commercial services, the current DoD radars and tactical systems in the band are well understood and the propagation characteristics are generally similar to the C-band, with a contiguous 500 MHz available.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have no doubt that today’s technology makes 4 GHz very suitable for mobile operators\u2019 tower locations and the equipment they can buy from OEMs today, and that it will only get better with time,\u201d Tarazi said.<\/p>\n
In the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) that Congress passed earlier this year, the 3.1-3.45 GHz and the 7.4-8.4 GHz bands, both occupied by military services, were deemed exempt from auctions. Tarazi said it would have been nice if the 3.5 GHz CBRS band also were protected, but the law centered on protecting federal users.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think at the end of the day, it didn\u2019t fit properly in the bill,\u201d he said. \u201cThey kept it a lot simpler. Ultimately, finding another 500 MHz and continuing to keep CBRS growing \u2013 it\u2019s like a double plus, because you can have both. We want to continue to focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rather than focusing on the 3.5 GHz CBRS band, Federated Wireless wants Washington, D.C., policymakers to look at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[60169,60167,60168,60165,28806,60166,165,17869,8061,74,10416,60170],"class_list":["post-87507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-6g","tag-citizens-broadband-radio-service-cbrs","tag-federal-communications-commission-fcc","tag-federated-wireless","tag-fierce-network-homepage","tag-iyad-tarazi","tag-mobile","tag-sprint","tag-t-mobile","tag-technology","tag-wireless","tag-wireless-spectrum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}