Canada aims to facilitate the provision of local 5G services for specific industries as well as communities in rural parts of the country

The government of Canada announced a new licensing policy with the aim of providing easy local access to 5G spectrum for Internet service providers and innovative industries as well as rural communities.

In a release, the Canadian government noted that the emergence of new wireless technologies is supporting the creation and expansion of new spectrum applications in many industries, including agriculture, mining, manufacturing, health care, public safety and transportation.

The government highlighted that this new local licensing process will help smaller users access 5G spectrum in very localized areas, including in rural, remote and Indigenous communities. For example, a farm might use this 5G spectrum for a private network to automate operations such as crop tracking or product traceability.

“Whether it’s on farms, in factories, on university campuses or in hospitals, new wireless technologies are enabling exciting innovations across our economy. That’s why our government is making access to 5G spectrum easier to ensure that Canadians, especially those in rural and remote parts of our country, can benefit from these emerging technologies,” said François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry.

The Canadian government said it is working to implement this licensing framework using an automated licensing system for users, which is expected to be made available in 2024.

The government designated 80 megahertz of spectrum in eight unpaired 10 megahertz blocks for shared use in the 3.90-3.98 GHz band.

The 3.94-3.98 GHz portion of the 3.9 GHz band will be reserved for use by small operators including small commercial mobile service providers, non-traditional users (NTUs) and WISPs.

The government also confirmed that it will implement a first-come, first-served (FCFS) scheme to award the new licenses.

The licenses will be awarded takingaccount a custom vector-based license area, based on a specified license area with a self-defined boundary. “The custom vector-based approach is also more scalable and can better expand to account for use cases that require coverage of larger areas, as the license area boundaries are not restricted to a circular shape,” the government said.

“Generally, renewable non-competitive local (NCL) license terms will be granted for one year. At the end of the license term, the licensee would have a high expectation of a license renewal for a subsequent term unless a breach of license condition has occurred, a fundamental reallocation of spectrum to a new service is required, or an overriding policy need arises,” the government added.