In 2022, communications vendors continue to lobby for licensed spectrum for 5G and indeed, 6G, albeit with nuances in their prioritisation of bands. The greatest divergence of vendor positions is in relation to the licensing status of 6 GHz spectrum. Vendors’ views on dedicated spectrum for IoT/private networks also vary. Read more...

Nokia prioritises harmonized spectrum for 5G and beyond and argues that regulatory decisions on the upper 6 GHz band should be deferred until after WRC-23. It applauds ITU identification of mmWave bands at 26 GHz, 40 GHz and 66 GHz for IMT and the ongoing study of mid bands in… Read more...

Qualcomm views the 700 MHz, 2.6 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 3.8-4.2 GHz and 26 GHz bands as key 5G bands, and sees L-band, 4.8 GHz, 40 GHz, 47.2-48.2 GHz and 66-71 GHz additional bands for the technology. Qualcomm regards 5G and Wi-Fi networks as complementary, requiring both licensed and unlicensed spectrum… Read more...

Ericsson’s spectrum focus remains on attaining more licensed spectrum for the mobile industry without targeting spectrum for a specific application, such as the Internet of Things (IoT). Read more...

Huawei considers that 5G requires multiple layers of spectrum to address wide use cases across sub-1 GHz, mid-bands and mmWave frequency ranges. It supports global harmonization of frequency bands and exclusive national licensing as the preferred authorization model. Huawei also identifies the entire 6 GHz band as potential ‘golden capacity’… Read more...

Intel considers that Wi-Fi is both critical and complementary to licensed 5G/IMT-2020 services and it supports unlicensed policy approaches for 6 GHz and 60 GHz spectrum. Intel supports flexible-use spectrum allocations which facilitate current and future innovation. Read more...

Cisco sees public and private 5G, Wi-Fi 6 and its evolution to Wi-Fi 7, and other technologies such as LoRa as key enablers of digitalization. Read more...

Apple says that a balanced approach to enabling access to licensed and licence-exempt spectrum is needed to fully realise the potential of wireless technologies in manufacturing, health care, social care, transport, entertainment and many other sectors. Read more...

Samsung identifies a range of mid-band spectrum targets as key for 5G/6G deployments – 2.6 GHz, 3.1-4.2 GHz, 4.4-4.5 GHz and a number of frequency ranges between 7-24 GHz. The company also prioritises the release of high-band mmWave spectrum – 26 GHz, 28 GHz and 37-43.5 GHz – for 5G. Read more...

Amazon, Meta (née Facebook), Google and Microsoft continue to focus on unlicensed spectrum but their interest in licensed spectrum—for both wireless and satellite communications—is growing. Read more...