The World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 identified 17.25GHz of spectrum for 5G across five bands, compared to 1.9GHz available before.
Background: The ITU plays a leading role in managing the radio spectrum and developing globally applicable standards for IMT-2020 or 5G. The ITU aims to providing stable international regulations, sufficient spectrum, and suitable standards for 5G, as well as the core network to enable successful 5G deployments at the regional and international levels.
Spectrum across five bands is earmarked for 5G: Last week, the ITU’s World Communication Conference (WRC-19) identified the following frequency bands for 5G: 24.25–7.5GHz, 37–43.5GHz, 45.5–47GHz, 47.2–48.2GHz and 66–71GHz. It also took measures to ensure an appropriate protection of the Earth Exploration Satellite Services, including meteorological and other passive services in adjacent bands. The total amount of spectrum assigned to 5G by WRC-19 is 17.25GHz, compared to 1.9GHz that were available beforehand. The ITU notes that 14.75GHz of those 17.25GHz have been harmonised worldwide, reaching 85% of global harmonisation. WRC-19 also defined a plan to identify frequencies for new components of 5G. One example is to facilitate mobile connectivity by High Altitude IMT Base Stations (HIBS). HIBS may be used as a part of terrestrial IMT networks to provide mobile connectivity in underserved areas where it is difficult to be covered by ground-based IMT base stations at a reasonable cost.
Next steps: The ITU group responsible for IMT-2020 or 5G is continuing the evaluation of the proposed technologies to allow operators to offer 5G performances for the next decade. This evaluation will be completed in early February 2020 and will be followed by the finalization of the IMT-2020 standards. ITU aims to ensure that the supporting standards for 5G applications will be in place in 2020.
