Ted Rappaport tapped to serve on FCC’s Technology Advisory Council

Theodore (Ted) Rappaport, the David Lee/Ernst Weber Professor of Electrical Engineering at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and founding director of NYU WIRELESS, has been asked to serve on the Federal Communications Commission’s Technological Advisory Council (TAC), which is just starting a new two-year term.

This is the second time that Rappaport, who is also a professor of computer science at NYU Courant and a professor of radiology at NYU School of Medicine, has served on the council. He first served in the mid-2000s, when he proved that the millimeter-wave (mmWave) region of the electromagnetic spectrum held vast potential for wireless telecommunications.

“It’s an honor to be invited to participate once again on this important FCC advisory council. The FCC, to its credit, acknowledged and adopted NYU’s pioneering work when we proved the viability of millimeter wave spectrum, and has embraced our work, and others, to be the first country in the world to unleash high-band spectrum for US carriers,” said Rappaport. “Wireless will soon put fiber optic speeds in everyone’s pocket, and as the rollout of 5G accelerates worldwide, we are looking ahead to a myriad of new possibilities under the aegis of 6G, based on work  we are doing at NYU WIRELESS in the sub-terahertz (THz) spectrum.”

In March, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai invited Rappaport to present NYU WIRELESS’ findings thus far on the opportunities afforded by these THz bands above 95 GHz, where “science fiction will become reality,” as Rappaport told the commission.

At last month’s Brooklyn 5G Summit at NYU Tandon in Brooklyn, New York, FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly advocated for faster action in releasing even more bandwidth for commercial and experimental uses.

The TAC comprises over 40 experts who will advise the FCC on such topics as the deployment of 5G technology, the evolution of broadband networks and devices and their implications, the spectrum needs of unmanned aircraft systems, new developments in antenna technology, and the applications of artificial intelligence to telecommunications networks.

Members of the council, which is slated to convene on June 21 in Washington, D.C., include such experts from NYU WIRELESS industry affiliates as:

• Brian Daly, assistant vice president, AT&T Services
• Satish Dhanasekaran, Senior Vice President, Keysight Technologies
• Stephen Hayes, Director of North American Standards, Ericsson North America
• Jack Nasielski, Senior Director, Qualcomm Inc.
• Kevin Sparks, Senior Director, Office of CTO, Nokia Bell Labs
• Charlie Zhang, Vice President, Samsung Research America, representing Samsung

Others include Karri Kuoppamaki, vice president of network technology development and strategy, T-Mobile; Milo Medin, vice president of wireless services at Google, Inc.; and David Young, vice president, public policy, at Verizon.