STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER BRENDAN CARR Re: Use of Spectrum Bands Above 24 GHz for Mobile Radio Services, GN Docket No. 14-177 A few minutes from now, the Commission will complete the 59th round of bidding for spectrum in the 28 GHz band. It is the FCC’s first ever high-band, 5G auction, and the results thus far are promising. The auction already has yielded nearly $700 million in provisionally winning bids. And that’s despite some unique constraints on this auction. For one, much of the band was licensed before the auction. Most of the license areas include incumbents, and what’s left contains less than a quarter of the country’s population. For another, auctioning millimeter wave spectrum is unchartered territory, and there was some uncertainty in the market about the spectrum’s value and use cases. So why is there so much demand for this spectrum? It’s because brilliant engineers have done what they always do: invent, innovate, and make it work. In fact, one wireless provider already is using the 28 GHz band to offer service to families who feel for the first time that they have a choice in home broadband. When it announced plans to build out the service, the provider said it could get up to gigabit speeds delivered over a distance of maybe 1,500 feet or a few city blocks. The engineers continued testing, and they extended that range to 2,000 feet, through foliage, varied weather conditions, and even without a line of sight. Last week, the provider announced another break through: it can deliver peak speeds of two to four gigabits per second up to half a mile from its small cells, bouncing the signal off structures and through trees. In short, we can do more with millimeter wave spectrum than we originally thought. That’s great news for the rollout of 5G services. And it’s great news for the millions of Americans who want more providers to compete for their broadband dollars. Next up after the 28 GHz auction is the 24 GHz band, which is greenfield, almost wholly unencumbered spectrum. And through the item before us today, we set the stage for three additional millimeter wave auctions in 2019. This plan will result in more spectrum being auctioned in a single year than at any time in the Commission’s history. It’s a full calendar, for sure. And it couldn’t come at a better moment, either. All of our nationwide carriers plan to deploy 5G next year. So 2019 will see the first 5G smartphone, the first commercial launch of 5G on low-band spectrum, and the first truly mobile 5G service. Put simply, 2019 will be the Year of 5G. And this is due, in part, to the Commission’s decisions to open up more spectrum for this new technology. To continue winning the race to 5G, we must keep up efforts like those that produced this item. So I want to thank the hardworking team in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau for their work. This item has my support.