DSA: We Must Work Together to Conquer 5G Barriers

The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) has set out its vision for 5G, adding that significant challenges need to be overcome in order to rollout fifth generation mobile networks.

Speaking at the CommunicAsia event in Singapore this week, The DSA’s president, Kalpak Gude, spoke of the challenges and barriers that need to be overcome in order to maximise the potential of 5G.

“5G is widely expected to incorporate a number of innovative features, all of which will allow a large range of applications with diverse requirements to be supported,” he said.

“Despite the benefits of 5G, there are still several barriers to overcome. The DSA believes that dynamic spectrum sharing can contribute to alleviating many of the key barriers to deployment that currently exist.”

The DSA estimates that the total costs for deploying 5G will run into several hundred billion dollars, and called on governments around the world to do more to cultivate favourable investment conditions, adding that mobile network operators could not be expected to foot the bill on their own.

He also called on regulators to consider spectrum sharing as a means of eliminating costly waste in the industry.

“Spectrum bands considered for 5G applications are above 3 GHz and spectrum in those bands have significantly poorer distance propagation and building penetration,” he continued.

“As a result, exclusive licensing for this type of spectrum is inherently wasteful because it will leave spectrum underutilized by design. The DSA therefore believes sharing, particularly dynamic sharing, is a much more effective way to manage this spectrum than the exclusive licensing paradigm where the license gives the owner the right to both use and exclude. Dynamic sharing enables both licensed and lightly licensed use in the same bands, providing opportunities to more entities to deploy infrastructure,” he concluded.  – Total Telecom