LAS VEGAS – The wireless industry’s growing need for more spectrum to power 5G opportunities was one of the few takeaways from the opening keynote at this week’s MWC Las Vegas event.

Spectrum is the lifeblood of the mobile telecommunications space as it’s what data traffic traverses between the radio access network (RAN) and the end-user mobile device. This need has resulted in facilities-based telecom operators having spent hundreds of billions of dollars on spectrum licenses.

However, that need is beginning to run into commercial and financial realities that are proving difficult to surmount.

Roger Entner, founder of analyst firm Recon Analytics, during the keynote said the industry needs a “pipeline” of spectrum that operators can use to plan network deployments and spending.

“We need a pipeline because every other industry that uses natural resources gets subsidized in this country,” Entner said. “The mobile industry paid more than $100 billion over the last two years, but they need a pipeline to plan for these huge expenses.”

This need was highlighted by the recent Federal Communications Commission Auction 108 proceedings that generated just over $400 million in total winning bids. That amount was only a fraction of what operators have paid on the open market for spectrum and significantly less than past auctions have generated.

Entner noted that current spectrum sharing models are proving to be a challenge in the market. He specifically cited the quasi-licensed Citizen Broadband Radio Spectrum (CBRS) band that has gained a lot of attention from private 5G network deployments.

“We need exclusive spectrum because sharing is hard,” Entner said. “CBRS is a very good example of a prime piece of real estate where we're trying to share, and it is hard, it is slow going, and there are not really a lot of success stories out there.”

Entner’s co-panelist David Christopher, EVP and GM for business development and alliances at AT&T Business, did quickly interject that there is a place for 5G spectrum sharing plans, “but it's not in lieu of or it doesn't take the place of licensed.”

Photo: Roger Entner, Founder, Recon Analytics (L); David Christopher, EVP and GM, AT&T Business Development and Alliances (R). Source: SDxCentral

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