Workforce Development a Huge Part of Making 5G Work, Carr Says
The FCC is doing what it can to speed the deployment of 5G in the U.S., FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said in taped remarks to the European 5G Conference in Brussels. Carr wasn’t able to travel because of the partial…
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federal government shutdown and sent the taped remarks, which he also posted on YouTube Tuesday. “The question for regulators like me is what can we do to make sure that this transition to 5G happens quickly and happens ubiquitously,” Carr said. “There’s no question that 5G is going to be transformative, both from a technological perspective, but also an economic perspective,” Carr said. While 4G “ushered in this app economy that transformed the way that we live, we work and we play, 5G is going to be even more transformative,” he said. “Everything that you do on your smartphone today is going to be better and faster.” Carr said the FCC has updated its rules on infrastructure for a 5G world and is focused on making “large blocks of contiguous spectrum” available. Currently, the FCC is “finishing” its first auction of high-band spectrum in the 28 GHz band, with the 24 GHz auction set to start "right after that," he said. Carr also emphasized the importance of workforce development. Deploying next-generation networks “is tough work,” he said. “It’s a lot of hardhats and bucket trucks, excavators and harnesses.”