The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced their brand-new web portal, which will allow developers all around the country to easily apply for access to 5G spectrum testing licenses via the internet. With 5G promising to become the new standard for wireless technology within the next several years, many developers have been trying to find ways to test their new ideas. And now, the FCC has made that process incredibly easier.
The product of a recent partnership between New York University (NYU) and the University of Colorado Boulder, the gateway makes it easier to acquire a program experimental spectrum license. This will simplify the process that members of research laboratories, health care institutions, universities, and manufactures must go through before they can receive permissions to test out new devices and applications. It also keeps the system from getting overloaded too quickly, ensuring that other existing services won’t be negatively affected by testing. With 5G developments advancing at a rapid pace, the reduction in bureaucratic red tape to gain an experimental spectrum license will drastically help clear the way for 5G technologies and standards to be created.
After applying for entrance into the program, licenses are typically issued within two weeks, and the program has already begun. NYU Wireless, an innovative academic research center with a focus on 5G mmWave wireless research, was the first research center to receive a license, thanks in part to the work members of the school have performed with the FCC in developing and launching the portal.
Founding Director of the NYU Wireless Program and Professor of Electrical Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering spoke about the benefits and effects that this portal could bring to burgeoning developers in a press release from the school. He stated that, “We believe massively broadband mobile communications will eventually migrate to both lower and higher frequency ranges, and we are honored that the FCC chose NYU to be one of two academic institutions to test the portal for usability and accuracy to help pave the way for our wireless future…. The efficiency and transparency of the new FCC experimental program portal will aid institutions like ours — as well as governmental spectrum holders and corporations— to accelerate experimentation of new systems and devices that will eventually become part of our interconnected world.”
With 5G advancements expected to produce upwards of $3.5 trillion in output over the next twenty years, it’s vital for current (and future) developers to have all the tools available to them for proper testing.
Interested parties may apply for an experimental program license through the FCC at https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/els/forms/442Dashboard.cfm. Once approved, the licensee may begin registering new program experiments at https://apps2.fcc.gov/ELSExperiments/pages/login.htm.
