FCC sets stage for 5G wireless services

The agency also laid the groundwork to auction a large amount of that spectrum to wireless companies while allowing more open or shared uses of the rest — all with flexible rules in hopes of duplicating the regulatory environment that helped fuel innovation in the existing fourth-generation networks.

Experts said 5G is the key to expanded wireless uses, such as autonomous vehicles, Internet-connected appliances, virtual reality and yet-to-be-imagined applications.

The technology also is seen as crucial to extending high-speed Internet access to rural areas that are expensive to serve with cable or fiber.

“A refrigerator that not only alerts you to a near-empty egg carton, but automatically adds that item to a virtual shopping list, enabling a delivery to your door by week’s end, without any action from you,” she said.

The airwaves set aside by the FCC previously had not been thought to be useful for commercial wireless services and have had limited uses, such as satellite transmissions.

Baker said that an autonomous vehicle using 4G technology takes 4.6 feet to stop once a signal is sent over a wireless connection.

[...] with South Korea, Japan and other nations studying the deployment of 5G networks, the FCC said the U.S. needed to act to maintain the nation’s technological edge in mobile technology.

[...] public interest groups want more of the airwaves to be available for unlicensed uses such as Wi-Fi instead of being auctioned to wireless companies.

“While we certainly believe that sharing is possible, we want to make sure there isn’t interference with existing and planned satellite operations,” said Tom Stroup, president of the Satellite Industry Association, a trade group.