Wireless infrastructure is part of Hillary Clinton’s $275 billion dollar plan to invest public funds in key sectors of the American economy.
The leading Democrat in the Presidential race said this week she wants to “build on the Obama Administration’s progress in fostering the evolution from ‘4G’ wireless networks to ‘5G’ networks and other next-generation systems that can deliver wireless connections measured in gigabits, not just megabits, per second.”
Roughly 78% of Americans now have access to 4G networks, according to a recent report from Open Signal, and the Clinton campaign is looking ahead to the next generation of wireless technology, recognizing that 5G will connect much more than smartphones.
“Widely deployed 5G networks and new unlicensed and shared spectrum technologies are essential platforms that will support the ‘Internet of Things,’ smart factories, driverless cars and much more — developments with enormous potential to drive economic growth and improve people’s lives,” the Clinton campaign said in a blog post announcing the candidate’s infrastructure investment plan.
Clinton’s mention of unlicensed spectrum technologies could be a reference to Wi-Fi or to LTE in unlicensed spectrum. LTE-U has very strong support from chipmaker Qualcomm, whose co-founder Irwin Jacobs hosted a Clinton fundraiser this summer.
Clinton is also pledging to foster “greater competition in local broadband markets.” The Open Internet Order (net neutrality law) adopted by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year gives the agency authority to preempt “state laws that prohibit municipalities from creating their own broadband infrastructure to compete against private companies.” These laws were created in several states to incentivize telcos and cable operators to invest in broadband.
Broadband access is a priority for the Clinton campaign, which is pledging universal and affordable access in the United States by 2020. Schools and libraries are targeted for additional public investment, with the goal of enabling them to provide free Wi-Fi to their communities.
The campaign’s discussion of wireless infrastructure focused on investment rather than on current legislation. Today the House Subcommittee on Communication and Technology is set to mark up the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act. This summer, Republican Presidential candidate Marco Rubio introduced a bill that would reallocate spectrum used by the federal government for commercial wireless and promote the deployment of wireless infrastructure on federally owned properties. That bill is currently under consideration by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
