FCC chairman Ajit Pai told a CES crowd that he thought 5G wireless technology could indeed help close the rural digital divide but conceded there were challenges to building out the next-generation technology to wherever it needed to go…

In terms of smartphones, Pai said, 5G might be more a “big city use case,” but he saw opportunities for fixed wireless, which was why he was bullish on the trial window for the spectrum in the 2.5-gigahertz band. He also pointed to precision agriculture and telemedicine…

Asked about the barriers to 5G buildout, Pai said it was not cheap, and that to create a buildout on a nationwide scale was a pretty massive undertaking. Spectrum was a constraint, which is why the FCC was focused on freeing it up, he said. Another limit: Finding the work crews to do the tough job of actually building out the infrastructure.
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