FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, noting his previous remarks on the proceeding, kept his remarks brief to avoid repeating himself. But he summed it up this way before the final vote: “This is a big day for our nation. This is a big day for this agency,” he said.

“I do believe this is one of the, if not the most, important decision this agency will make this year. By becoming the first nation to identify high-band spectrum, the United States is ushering in the 5G era of high capacity, high-speed, low-latency wireless networks. By not getting involved in the technologies that will use the spectrum, we’re turning loose the incredible innovators of this country,” he said.

One of the pioneers in millimeter wave research, Ted Rappaport, an IEEE fellow and founding director of NYU Wireless, called today’s vote an “historic moment, a turning point, as the Renaissance of wireless begins.” The professor and his students conducted ground-breaking research into the spectrum that was once deemed undesirable.

“Carriers and entrepreneurs alike now have a true wireless fiber opportunity for fixed and mobile, and our work at NYU Wireless has proven both the physics and the potential,” Rappaport said in a statement. “There is no doubt that giant new businesses and applications that exploit this unprecedented spectrum will change our world in amazing ways over the next decade.”

“Now rural carriers and entrepreneurs can reap true fiber-like service in rural areas. NYU’s work shows there is no technical limitation when site specific deployment is used,” he added.