Washington — Federal regulators on Thursday opened the door to the next generation of wireless services, making the U.S. the first nation to allocate a wide swath of airwaves to deliver super-fast 5G access.

The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to clear the way for mobile devices to send and receive signals over high-frequency spectrum that has had only limited uses until recent technological advances.

The agency also laid the groundwork to auction a large amount of that spectrum to wireless companies while allowing more open or shared uses of the rest — all with flexible rules in hopes of duplicating the regulatory environment that helped fuel innovation in the existing fourth-generation networks.

“By not getting involved in the technologies that will use the spectrum we’re turning loose the incredible innovators of this country,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said.

The FCC hasn’t set a date for an auction of licenses to use the new airwaves. And IGR, a wireless market strategy consulting firm, estimated it would cost $56 billion to develop, test and deploy technologies to use the spectrum in the U.S. through 2025.