New bill requires at least 1,250 megahertz of spectrum between 1.3-13.2 GHz be auctioned for full-power, licensed commercial use
It has been slightly more than a year since the auction authority of the Federal Communications Commission was allowed to lapse, and a new, Republican-backed bill has been introduced that may generate some movement on the restoration of that authority and a legislative direction for midband spectrum development.
However, it also sets up a clash between those who advocate that the wireless industry needs full-power, exclusive licenses to spectrum and those who back spectrum-sharing approaches. The Biden administration is expected to release this week an implementation plan of its own National Spectrum Strategy, which takes a “share when feasible” approach.
The one-year anniversary of the lapse of auction authority came on March 9. Today, two top Republicans—Sen. Ted Cruz, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), ranking member of the subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband—introduced a new bill that they said was the result of a year-long effort to put together a spectrum proposal that is meant to both protect the country’s national security interests (since federal users, including the Department of Defense, are the current users of most of the airwaves highly sought by the telecom industry) and achieve the “greatest value possible” for American taxpayers. A third Republican, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, is an original co-sponsor of the bill.
“To dominate in next-generation wireless technologies, stay ahead of our adversaries, and advance strong economic growth, the U.S. must create a pipeline to expand commercial access to mid-band spectrum,” said Sen. Cruz. “The Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2024 meets those goals while promoting both consumer and national security interests.”
Thune said: “This legislation restores the FCC’s auction authority, and, in doing so, it ensures that crucial mid-band spectrum is made available for commercial 5G and advanced Wi-Fi use, which is a win-win for American entrepreneurs and consumers. I look forward to working with Senator Cruz and my other colleagues to advance this important and much-needed legislation.”
Blackburn said that the Spectrum Pipeline Act “proposes concrete action to free critical mid-band spectrum for commercial use under defined timelines.”
The bill would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to identify at least 2,500 megahertz of midband spectrum between 1.3 GHz-13.2 GHz that could be reallocation for commercial use (either licensed or unlicensed), and stipulates that at least half of the identified spectrum must allow for “full power commercial licensed use cases.”
Wireless industry advocacy group CTIA has been urging the federal government to open up additional spectrum under the conditions that mobile network operators find most favorable and efficient: full-power, exclusive-license use, which has been the traditional approach to commercial licensing in the U.S. However, in an increasingly congested spectrum environment with ever more industries seeking access to spectrum—and the Department of Defense eager to protect its own operations across various bands—the Biden administration has taken the position that developing better sharing technologies is the pragmatic approach.
The White House released its own National Spectrum Strategy late last year, which identified five candidate bands for near-term study and development, totaling 2,786 megahertz with an emphasis on midband spectrum and bolstering technology for dynamic sharing of spectrum. The candidate bands ranged from 3.1 GHz to 37.6 GHz, with all but one of them under 20 GHz and were a mix of federal bands and shared federal/non-federal bands, to be studied not only for terrestrial wireless use but for space-based services and aerial drones. That spectrum strategy report made clear both that spectrum is increasingly crucial to everything from national security to economic growth and technological leadership, and consideration on a national level has to be given to not only terrestrial mobile networks but to space development and spectrum for specific uses like drones and automobiles—and that spectrum is a finite resource for which there is more and more competition. It also declared that “Evolving to a ‘designed to share whenever feasible’ mindset will accelerate efficient and effective use of spectrum for all users” and said that NTIA would pursue “development of an enduring, scalable mechanism to manage shared spectrum access, including through the development of a common spectrum management platform.”
The proposed Republican bill would renew the FCC’s auction authority for eight years from the date that the bill took effect and require the agency to auction at least 1,250 megahertz of spectrum for full-power commercial wireless use within six years, including at least 600 megahertz within three years. The bill also requires the FCC to allocate at least 125 megahertz of additional spectrum for unlicensed use, and it removes a limitation in current law so that federal agencies would be allowed to buy new equipment using spectrum auction proceeds.
CTIA President and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker thanked Cruz and Thune for “pursuing the needed action to restore the FCC’s auction authority and create a strong pipeline of full-power, licensed spectrum that will support Americans’ growing wireless data use, protect our national security, and infuse real competition in the home broadband market. We look forward to working with Congress on legislation that will ensure the wireless industry can continue to build wireless networks that offer competitive consumer home broadband options, support cutting-edge innovation, and help the U.S. lead the world in wireless.”
However, Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future project at the Open Technology Institute at New America, said in emailed comments that the bill is “dead on arrival, not only with Democrats, but also with some Republicans on Senate Armed Services Committee.”
Calabrese continued: “A mandate to auction 1,250 megahertz within five years necessarily presupposes that the Pentagon is going to not just share, but clear off a majority of the spectrum they currently rely on in the lower 3 GHz and 7 to 8 GHz bands. That would be a backdoor maneuver to undermine the studies of those same bands in President Biden’s National Spectrum Strategy.” He went on to add that the spectrum pipeline proposed in the Republican bill is “totally unbalanced” in that it mandates that the FCC auction at least ten times as much licensed, full-power spectrum as the minimum 125 megahertz for unlicensed. “That is completely out of whack considering that today roughly 80 percent of all mobile device data traffic uses Wi-Fi, not mobile carrier spectrum,” he concluded.
The mobile industry’s need for exclusive and full-power/high-power spectrum for use over large areas “is a mission accomplished,” Calabrese told RCR Wireless News. “That is coverage spectrum, and they have plenty. … That’s why they’ve gone into the fixed wireless business.” What carriers need more of, he said, is spectrum for additional capacity in high-traffic areas—and for that, an access framework with lower power and sharing could work.
He called the Republican bill also disappointing because it is “such an overreach that it prevents a simple extension of FCC auction authority.” And in fact, Calabrese said that the introduction of the bill suggests that the narrowly divided Senate won’t move forward on extending the FCC’s auction authority until next year—meaning that the telecom industry may face an even longer delay before it can get clarity on a spectrum roadmap, and an FCC that can actually reallocate and auction any airwaves at all.
Meanwhile, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel marked the one-year anniversary of the lapse of auction authority by opening a new docket item for public input on how the agency might legally use its existing regulatory tools and authority to provide access to its inventory of previously licensed but currently unassigned spectrum.
“In light of the reality the agency has faced for almost a year, we are now compelled to ask what we can do with our current unassigned spectrum in order to keep innovation moving ahead in a global market for wireless that is not slowing down,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “I remain hopeful that the FCC’s auction authority will be restored quickly so that this important program is once again able to produce results for consumers and the economy. The agency stands ready to work with lawmakers to ensure we don’t find ourselves in the same place next year.”
