Wiley Rein’s Ari Meltzer said Wednesday that the Court of Federal Claims now has some complicated and substantial issues to resolve after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit remanded back to the lower court Ligado’s spectrum property claims (see 2603090034). During a Federalist Society webinar, Meltzer noted that the appeals court acted very quickly after hearing oral argument in early February (see 2602040054).
Electric utilities and infrastructure operators will have better access to the 900 MHz band following the FCC's 3-0 approval of an order at its monthly meeting Wednesday. Commissioners also unanimously approved an NPRM on reforming intercarrier compensation to help foster the transition to all-IP networks and a public notice on opening a future filing window for noncommercial educational (NCE) translator construction permits in the reserved portion of the FM band. A controversial Lifeline NPRM was approved but saw a lengthy partial dissent from Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez (see 2602180038).
Thirty years in, the 1996 Telecommunications Act has helped usher in some notable successes, such as increased competition and innovation, but it hasn't made nearly as much progress in guaranteeing universal service, telecom policy experts said in a Broadband Breakfast panel discussion Wednesday.
Many of the bands highlighted in the Dec. 19 presidential memo on spectrum for 6G will likely take years to bring to auction, but that may be all right with carriers, who will face two auctions in the next two years, industry officials told us.
Lawmakers and other observers said in recent interviews that Congress’ deal to pass the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act without language giving the defense secretary and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to essentially veto commercial use of 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands (see 2512080055) will only temporarily pause fighting between the wireless industry and DOD supporters over military spectrum holdings. Officials pointed to President Donald Trump’s memorandum last week directing NTIA to explore reallocating federal systems currently on the 7.125-7.4 GHz band to the 7.4-8.4 GHz band and other frequencies (see 2512190086) as a fresh indicator that the ceasefire will be fleeting.
The cable industry has embarked on a "bizarre" strategy of trying to prevent spectrum auctions and starve fixed-wireless access (FWA) of more spectrum rights, High Tech Forum founder Richard Bennett wrote Wednesday. FWA providers are excited about the 800 MHz target for new spectrum licenses, as laid out in Congress' budget reconciliation package, previously called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, he said. Cable's response is "positioning itself as the one true champion of Wi-Fi, the presumed loser from the OBBB auction plan." However, he said, "Wi-Fi doesn’t care what technologies users employ for Internet access. Wi-Fi simply connects devices in a home or office to each other. Telcos need -- and use -- Wi-Fi for the same reason cable does: to convenience its customers."
Fixed wireless access (FWA) isn't a temporary product "but something that's here to stay," as improving mobile technology means more "fallow capacity" that T-Mobile can use, COO Srinivasan Gopalan said Thursday as the carrier announced quarterly results. His comments came a day after AT&T told analysts that it plans to beef up its FWA service starting next year using EchoStar's 3.45 GHz band spectrum. Cable ISPs have said they expect to see FWA competition ebbing as wireless carriers deploy their spectrum more for mobile uses (see 2501310005).
FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty told the Mobile World Congress this week that the FCC’s “Delete” proceeding remains a key focus for the agency. She said that as a former Senate staffer, she understands that making more spectrum available for carriers is a national security issue. Commissioner Anna Gomez noted that the FCC has a lot of work to do to move forward on spectrum auctions. Trusty and Gomez didn't attend the conference because of the federal government shutdown, but both offered recorded remarks.
The citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band has moved beyond the experimental stage and demonstrated its effectiveness, Salt Point Strategies’ Dave Wright said last week during a webinar hosted by consulting firm Senza Fili. CBRS “works,” said Wright, former president of the OnGo Alliance, which promotes the CBRS. “We’ve been doing it for five years. We’ve got 420,000 base station radios operating in the band,” and “we’ve had zero reports of interference” to the military systems that share the spectrum.
Despite continuing questions about how quickly major wireless providers really want the next major spectrum auction, the FCC is under the gun to hold an upper C-band auction in just two years. But industry experts told us that, as was said of the baseball field in 1989’s Field of Dreams, if the FCC holds an auction the carriers will come.