At the end of the Obama administration, Dedicated Short-Range Communications at 5.9 GHz for intelligent transportation systems was on the cusp of becoming required in all new vehicles, setting a mandate for the use of spectrum which had largely lain fallow for more than 20 years. Four years later, as the Trump administration comes to a close, the band is on a completely different trajectory, to use cellular vehicle-to-everything technology and share the airwaves with unlicensed systems.
The Federal Communications Commission voted this week to split the 75 megahertz of formerly-DSRC spectrum at 5.850-5.925 GHz, allocating the lower 45 megahertz of the band for unlicensed use and the upper 30 megahertz for intelligent transportation systems that must use C-V2X technology.
