Qualcomm promised to press ahead with cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) deployments as quickly as possible, as the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to dedicate a portion of the 5.9GHz band to the technology.

The FCC advanced a proposal to allocate 45MHz of the band to Wi-Fi and 20MHz to C-V2X at a meeting on 12 December, and sought comment on whether a remaining 10MHz available in the band should also be allocated to C-V2X or reserved for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) systems.

Since 1999, the entire 5.9GHz band has been reserved for DSRC, but deployment progress was slow and automakers have increasingly shown interest in C-V2X.

In a statement, Qualcomm SVP of government affairs Dean Brenner hailed the new band plan as “visionary,” noting it would “enable us to bring the tremendous, unmatched safety benefits from C-V2X to US drivers, passengers and pedestrians”.

He added the company will continue to work with the FCC and ecosystem partners to “get C-V2X on the air as quickly and broadly as possible”.

Qualcomm previously identified automotive as a key business opportunity and in November noted increased traction in the segment as its revenue pipeline grew to $6.5 billion from $5.5 billion in January.