Despite all the carrier-infused hype, we're still in the early days of 5G in the US. A crux for the new network is that it currently mostly only works on extremely low or extremely high frequencies, so it's either barely faster than 4G or super-fast, but hardly able to penetrate walls. The federal government seems to recognize this issue, as it has announced that it will hand over a portion of previously military-exclusive midband frequencies to the FCC, which should help carriers create both more robust and faster 5G networks.

The frequencies in question can be found in the 3.45-3.55 GHz spectrum. TechCrunch reports that due to legal hurdles and a transition period for military use, the FCC will only auction the new frequencies in December 2021, with private companies able to use them starting sometime in 2022. The publication further cites an administration official saying that spectrum sharing will follow AWS-3 rules, meaning the auction will use the same guidelines as the preceding 2015 midband auction.

It's still questionable whether 100MHz of spectrum will be enough to support all of the devices that will connect to 5G access points in the future, but it's certainly a step in the right direction — especially when you consider that other countries like South Korea and China are further ahead in 5G deployment.

Source: White House, FCC

Via: TechCrunch