ECE 445S Real-Time Digital Signal Processing Laboratory - Lecture 13 - Announcements

Prof. Brian L. Evans

Announcements: Spectrum Regulation and Auctions

Worldwide spectrum allocations compiled by Rohde & Schwarz
Wireless spectrum in US regulated by
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for consumer and other non-governmental use
  - Licensed bands -- Cellular communication services, Satellite TV, etc.
  - Unlicensed bands -- 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz, 60 GHz, etc. -- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other services
- National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) for government use
  - Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for aircraft industry
  - NASA passive satellites to monitor air and weather
  - Global positioning system (GPS)
US "FCC auction of rural 2.5 GHz county licenses to begin July 29" and "FCC Announces Winning Bidders of 2.5 GHz Auction" RCR Wireless, March 22, 2022.
- 2.5 GHz band Established in early 1960s for educational and religious programming broadcast
- Never really took off; licensees leased band to Sprint (T-Mobile) for cellular service
- Auction intended to close gap in 5G service in rural areas
- Auction consisted of 8,000 county-level licenses, mostly in rural areas of the US.
- Bands of bandwidths 49.5 MHz, 50.5 MHz and 17.5 MHz will be auctioned.
- The 49.5 MHz and 50.5 MHz bands are adjacent.
- $428M raised for the 117.5 MHz of bandwidth, or $3.6M/MHz
"3GPP commences 6 GHz IMT licensed spectrum standardization", Telecom Review, January 5, 2022
US "Auction 110 update: $18.7 billion and counting", Kelly Hill, RCR Wireless News, Oct. 22, 2021.
- 3.45 GHz spectrum with 100 MHz bandwidth divided into ten 10-MHz chunks
- Each licenses is in different locality (geographical area)
- In 36 localities, licensees will have to coordinate their use of the band with incumbent military systems
- Bids currently exceed $18.7B, which is $187M per MHz of bandwidth
US "C Band auction's first phase wraps up at $80.92 billion", Kelly Hill, RCR Wireless News, Jan. 15, 2021
- C band is 3.7-4.0 GHz
- 5,684 licenses, or 14 sub-blocks in each of 406 available Partial Economic Areas
  - A block: 100 MHz (five 20 MHz sub-blocks) 3.7-3.8 GHz (cleared by Dec. 2021)
  - B block: 100 MHz (five 20 MHz sub-blocks) 3.8-3.9 GHz
  - C block: 80 MHz (four 20 MHz sub-blocks) 3.9-3.98 GHz
  - 20 MHz guard band for satellite operators 3.98-4.0 GHz
  - Satellite operators to move operations to 4.0-4.2 GHz band
- Auction raised $14.2M per license or $269.7M per MHz
- "Verizon fetes C-band trials using 200 MHz" bandwidths, Monica Alleven, Fierce Wireless, Sep 12, 2022.
Emerging 37-43.5 GHz band
- North America uses 37-40.5 GHz
- Europe uses 40.5-43.5 GHz
- China uses 37-42.5 GHz
FCC wraps up third millimeter wave 5G spectrum auction by Bevin Fletcher, Fierce Wireless, Mar 6, 2020
- 1st Round: 28 GHz band with 0.85 GHz bandwidth (Verizon 72%, US Cellular 18%, T-Mobile 5.5% of licenses)
- 2nd Round: 24 GHz band with 0.70 GHz bandwidth (AT&T 49%, T-Mobile 40%, US Cellular 6% of licenses)
- 3rd Round: 37, 39, 47 GHz bands with 1, 1, 1.4 GHz bandwidth (T-Mobile, AT&T, Dish, Sprint won most licenses)
- Auctioned in 100 MHz subbands
- Each company cannot have more than four 100 MHz subbands in each band
Global 5G sub-6 GHz band 3.4-4.2 GHz (Oct. 2019)
Globally harmonized 5G mmWave band 24.5-29.5 GHz (Oct. 2019)
- 26 GHz band (24.25-27.5 GHz) European Commission - Australia
- 28 GHz band (26.5-29.5 GHz)
2016-2017 FCC auction of broadcast TV bands dashboard and story
- Spectrum: 580 MHz to 700 MHz
- Reverse auction: 175 broadcast TV stations gave up licensed spectrum ($10B)
- Forward auction: 50 companies bid on relinquished spectrum ($19B) with largest accepted bids T-Mobile ($8B), Dish Network ($6.2B), Comcast ($1.7B) and AT&T ($0.91B)
2015 FCC auction of wireless spectrum (story)
- $44.9B for 65 MHz of bandwidth, or $690M/MHz
- AW-3 Bands: 1695-1710 MHz + 1755-1780 MHz + 2155-2180 MHz

Last updated 04/14/23. Send comments to (Mailbox) bevans@ece.utexas.edu