Spectrum policy issues for millimeter wave mobile communications [Spectrum Policy and Regulatory Issues]

National and international researchers and spectrum regulators have opened the issue of mobile broadband use of spectrum above 20 GHz, often called "millimeter wave" (mmW) because of the wavelengths involved. It is ironic that when the author first started working in spectrum policy in 1979, conventional wisdom was that land mobile use above even 1 GHz was impractical. Indeed, the original U.S. motivation for considering high definition television, which later evolved into digital television, was an attempt by U.S. broadcasters to derail an initiative by land mobile interests for more spectrum sharing access to UHF-TV spectrum because that was thought to be the only available new band which would work in land mobile applications [1].