Ericsson plans Q3 launch of MIMO-enabled 600 MHz equipment

Winning bidders in the FCC’s recently completed 600 MHz incentive auction can tap Ericsson for network equipment beginning later this year.

Ericsson wasted little time in staking its claim of support for telecommunication operators that won 600 MHz spectrum licenses in the Federal Communications Commission’s recently concluded incentive auction proceedings.

The vendor said it planed to have a “suite” of 600 MHz products ready for commercial deployment by the third quarter of this year, “providing operators the ability to quickly launch services in their new 600 MHz spectrum holdings.” Ericsson noted the equipment would be based on its 4478 radio platform recently introduced at the Mobile World Congress event, and include multiple-input/multiple-output antenna technology.

“The FCC’s first-of-its-kind incentive auction provides guidance to other countries wishing to repurpose spectrum,” said Glenn Laxdal, head of network products for Ericsson North America, in a statement. “The quick deployment of service in the 600 MHz spectrum will help improve the coverage footprint, increase data speeds and enable continued industry growth.”

The 600 MHz incentive auction wrapped up last week, with the year-long process garnering nearly $19.8 billion in total auction proceeds. The final stage was the assignment phase, which had companies that won licenses in the forward auction covering the 428 partial economic areas bid again for where those 10-megahertz license blocks would fall within the up to 70 megahertz of spectrum in each PEA.

The FCC said it plans to release a public notice on the auction’s closing and channel reassignment for television broadcasters in “a few weeks,” which will include results for the reverse and forward auctions. Forward auction winners will then receive notice on payment requirements.

Forward auction participants remain under the proceeding’s anticollusion rules until the payment deadline. As in recent spectrum auctions, the FCC did not provide detailed bidding activity for the 600 MHz incentive auction, though qualified participants in the auction included Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile US, U.S. Cellular and C Spire, as well as some international interest in the form of Japan’s NTT DoCoMo.

The FCC has set a 39-month timeline for television broadcasters to clear their operations from the 600 MHz spectrum band, which would put full spectrum availability into early 2020, or about the time most expect commercial “5G” services to be coming on air. Initial 5G deployments are expected to focus on higher band spectrum licenses in the 3.5 GHz band as well as millimeter wave bands higher than the 15 GHz band. These bands are set to include broad swaths of spectrum support in order to meet the expected capacity needs of 5G services.

However, broader coverage will require lower spectrum bands. Many see 5G deployments relying heavily on current LTE deployments using low-band spectrum in order to meet coverage demands, with the 600 MHz spectrum able to bolster the supply.