“Carrier Wrap” looks at the wind down of the FCC’s 600 MHz incentive auction, update on 5G deployment plans and previews what to expect from MWC.
On this week’s “Carrier Wrap” we speak with Dan Hays, partner at PwC’s Strategy& division, to discuss the wind down of the Federal Communications Commission’s 600 MHz incentive auction proceedings, get his views on the pace of development and deployment of carrier “5G” plans and a preview of what to expect from the upcoming Mobile World Congress event.
The FCC auction recently hit a significant milestone with potential winning bids in the forward auction process hitting targets set by television broadcasters in the reverse auction proceedings. This means the auction itself is now down to just forward bidding and is set to come to a conclusion during the current round.
Hays said the auction itself could last for another few weeks as bidders work through lining up their demand for licenses with supply. The auction will then move towards the allocation phase where license winners will then need to work through bidding on which blocks of spectrum they will be awarded in each market. All in, Hays said he expects the process to finish up sometime in March.
This of course does not take into account any potential impact from new leadership coming into the FCC.
In terms of 5G, Hays said the market remains focused at this point on high-band spectrum support, citing allocations tied to the FCC’s Spectrum Frontiers proceedings that were announced last summer. Hays noted initial deployments are likely to include fixed wireless services that should allow operators a more controlled environment in terms of garnering real-world experience in deploying millimeter wave spectrum.
More importantly, Hays said 5G deployments will likely increase the industry’s reliance on fiber deployments to handle backhaul of high-bandwidth services, which could place increased strain – or value – on infrastructure.
In the short term, Hays said the upcoming MWC event could see an increased focus from operators on their digital transformation models; continued work on the impact and business models surrounding the internet of things; and the potential for new devices, with Hays predicting last year’s push around virtual reality will be replaced this year by robots.
Thanks for watching this week’s show and make sure to check out our next “Carrier Wrap” when we speak with LGS Innovations to discuss challenges associated with large spectrum reallocations and the future of spectrum sharing.
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