Carr: FCC Should Consider Making COVID-19 Spectrum Assignments Permanent

“I’m really happy with the quick action the FCC staff took to put more spectrum out there and I’d love to see I stay out there in the commercial marketplace,” Carr said: “We need to make sure that everybody has a fair shot at potentially getting access.” The agency shouldn’t let anyone sit on spectrum, he said: “We’re seeing that there are carriers that can put it to use immediately.” Don’t micromanage how frequencies are used, and let providers “adjust and optimize their networks,” Carr said.

“America’s telecom infrastructure performed very well,” Carr said. On the wireline side, the surge averaged about 25%, he said. Mobile networks had somewhat less of an increase. Typically, the highest traffic is around 9 p.m., Carr said: “We didn’t see a significant surge in traffic above those ordinary peak traffic levels,” but similar levels spread out during the day. “There was room in the network to absorb this increase in traffic because it didn’t significantly exceed normal peak hour traffic,” he said. Carr said the 6 GHz order, approved last week (see 2004230059), will boost Wi-Fi connection speeds and devices should be in the market by the holiday buying season: “That can address what potentially was going to be a bottleneck as we shift to 5G.”

ITU mandated telework for all staff March 16, said Mario Maniewicz, Radiocommunication Bureau director. The “bureau remains open, virtually of course, for key meetings and for consultation with our members,” he said. ITU is working “very hard” to take the results of last year’s World Radiocommunication Conference and incorporate them into the 2020 version of the radio regulations, he said: “It will be accomplished later this year on schedule.”

The next WRC, in 2023, is expected to happen as planned, Maniewicz said. “It is very fortunate that we are only at the beginning of the study period.” Working groups are initiating their studies and don’t need to make “any hard decisions” now, he said. ITU is “fully committed” to holding the next WRC as scheduled, he said.

Europe had similar increases in broadband use, said Jeremy Godfrey, communications commissioner in Ireland. “The traffic has grown massively,” probably more in Europe than in the U.S, he said. Networks are built with capacity to handle evening peaks and have coped with demand, he said. Early on, European regulators asked streaming services like Netflix to throttle their speeds, but there hasn’t been “any significant difference in the experience of the networks here and in America,” Godfrey said. European regulation is working as well as U.S. regulation, he said.

Like America, almost everyone in European cities has access to broadband, Godfrey said. “It is the users in rural areas … who are really suffering as a result of being asked to stay at home.” 5G and fiber dominated recent discussions, but Godfrey expects more emphasis on the need for universal access to broadband.

Ericsson is seeing a shift in internet traffic patterns worldwide, from urban to suburban and other residential areas, said Ulf Pehrsson, head-government and industry relations. “Networks are coping in spite of big challenges in voice, and particularly data traffic, as well operational hurdles.” Use of conference apps like Zoom means more upload traffic, he said: In Italy, one of the hardest hit countries, upload traffic grew up to 40 percent.

Spectrum auctions are facing delays, said consultant Johanne Lemay, co-president of Lemay-Yates Associates. France, Spain and Portugal delayed auctions. So did the FCC (see 2003250052) for the citizens broadband radio service auction, only for a month, she said. Sweden, which doesn’t have the same lockdown as elsewhere, just announced an auction in November, she said. Canada still plans a December auction in the 3.5 GHz band, she said.