New US law to prepare spectrum for massive IoT growth

Worried that the US infrastructure will not be able to handle the explosion of IoT devices that is expected to come with the arrival of 5G networks, US lawmakers last week introduced the “IoT Readiness Act”.The bi-partisan legislation, authored by Democrat Congresswoman of Washington Suzan DelBene and Republican Congressman John Katko of New York, directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to determine how much spectrum is necessary to meet the demands of the anticipated growth of IoT devices. Spectrum is a finite resource, and if the available spectrum cannot accommodate the devices in the same vicinity, the signals will interfere with each other and cause them to fail,” DelBene said in a statement.In 2014, the FCC’s own Technical Advisory Council (TAC) advised the FCC to implement a plan that would ensure adequate spectrum is available and monitor the growth of IoT devices.