Accenture claims the US needs additional mid-band for 5G.

Also known as Goldilocks of the spectrum, the 5G mid-band spectrum offers faster speeds than the low band and better coverage than the high band. Despite the fact that C-band and CBRS deployments are already underway, it is generally accepted that more mid-band spectrum needs to be freed up for use by service providers. The United States is relatively late in doing this. Accenture Managing Director Tejas Rao explained why this happens and why 5G will change the way he measures network rollout performance.

Accenture and CTIA Analyze U.S. Spectrum Utilization

The C-band auction and CBRS have already taken place and will need to be refarmed. [additional midband] Make it available for 5G. But they still think they need to make the mid-band space available. increase.

The US wireless industry currently has access to 5% of the low-mid spectrum, according to a recent analysis of domestic spectrum allocation by Accenture and CTIA. However, government and unlicensed users of the spectrum can access 7 and 12 times that amount, respectively. They determined that three lower midband spectral bands were appropriate, including the lower 3 GHz band (3.1-3.45 GHz), 400 MHz in the 4.4-4.94 GHz band, and 400 MHz in the 7.125 and 8.4 GHz bands. . Considered to have the highest potential for 5G development, it is open and allocated for mobile phone use. According to the CTIA, if those three bands were given to a commercial wireless user, they would have access to 1.19 times more spectrum than an unlicensed user and 1.34 times more spectrum than a government customer.

When 5G rollout plans began, mid-band was left on the back burner. This was because the entire United States focused on allocating the low band for coverage and then the high band for speed and capacity. T-Mobile US also received more than 100 megahertz of Sprint’s 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum as part of the latter acquisition. This was important for the former.

Historically, mobile networks have always been intended to handle the heaviest traffic of their carriers, so they have deployed much, if not most, of their equipment to handle peak loads inherently. rice field. They firmly believe that this 5G generation of him will change the game in ways that few previous technologies have. They were gradual. 2G is for breaking phone connections, 3G enables the internet, and 4G is all about video. According to Rao, everything you ever wanted to do is now possible with 5G. For eligible POPs, carriers describe their networks. The focus on ensuring pure coverage has made this the standard deployment model. But now, for the first time, we have this tremendous freedom, Rao added, noting the unique properties of 5G that make this possible, such as virtualized core and edge networks.