Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) is coming to the U.S. next month. And that’s a big deal.
This giant industry gathering has taken place in Barcelona for the past few years. There’s also been a Shanghai version of Mobile World Congress.
And this year, on Sept. 12 through 14, San Francisco will play host to the first Mobile World Congress Americas.
So it should come as no surprise that cellular infrastructure giants like Nokia (News - Alert) have big plans for the event.
In fact, Nokia recently got news that the Federal Communications Commission has approved its request to demonstrate its Flexi Zone base station and a mobile unit on 27.5-28.35GHz spectrum during Mobile World Congress Americas.
The approval for this experimental effort will enable Nokia to use some of the spectrum that the FCC (News - Alert) recently made available for licensed use. The FCC last year made 3.85GHz between 27.5 and 28.35GHz and between 37 and 40GHz for licensed use.
That’s why AT&T and Verizon (News - Alert) were both so interested in buying Straight Path Communications, which had licenses in both the 27GHz and 39GHz bands. AT&T first announced plans to buy the company, but then Verizon swooped in and got the company for more than $3 billion.
Verizon also has the option to acquire additional 28GHz airwaves from NextLink as part of its acquisition of XO Communication, which is closed in February.
That led Verizon to purchase 28GHz spectrum from NextLink via the XO Communications (News - Alert) deal. NextLink Is a former XO affiliate.
T-Mobile also has some 28GHz and 39GHz band spectrum. That includes 200MHz worth in select markets.
5G will usher in higher bandwidth services and a whole lot more. Ultra reliable low latency communications is one of the capabilities that makes 5G different from past iterations of cellular technology. This capability could help cellular service providers support things like the connected car and remote surgery via robotics. What both of these example applications have in common is their need for extreme reliability and performance, as the ability for a vehicle to communicate with what’s around it to make the right decisions at the right time, and the ability for a doctor to move the robot at the right time and in a timely fashion, can be the difference between life and death.
Edited by Alicia Young