Without Clear Answers in Sight, Spectrum Fights Won't Go Away

Spectrum policy issues have been “highly contentious and at the forefront” of discussions by the administration and in Congress for the past two years or longer, noted Joe Kochan, executive director of the National Spectrum Consortium. “2025 really looks no different,” he said. Despite the “dramatic” shift in U.S. political leadership, answers remain elusive, Kochan added.

Rikin Thakker, NCTA chief technology officer, said it's a “very crucial moment” for U.S. spectrum policy. “Access to spectrum is becoming a bigger issue, and we are still seeing the same narrative from the wireless operators … asking for more exclusive use spectrum,” he said: “We need to face the reality. There is no greenfield spectrum left. We have to find ways to share spectrum with federal incumbents.”

The fate of the Biden administration’s national spectrum strategy isn’t clear, Thakker said. It “definitely" has "the wheels in motion” to identify key bands for study and emphasizes the importance of shared use. Carriers can use the lower 3 GHz band while protecting DOD operations, but only through a shared approach, he said.

NCTA views 7/8 GHz, another top focus of carriers, as “the next frontier” for unlicensed use, Thakker said. Wi-Fi can coexist with federal systems, making it “a natural candidate” for 7/8 GHz, he added.

Doriana Guiducci, spectrum expert at the European Communications Office, said discussions in Europe are “very heated” about the same bands that are proving contentious in the U.S. European regulators are considering how the 6 GHz band will be used, and “sharing is one of the key themes,” she said. Guiducci added that 7/8 GHz is proving to be a “difficult band” in Europe.

While the U.S. and Europe are looking at the same bands, “the similarities pretty much end here,” Guiducci said. In Europe, the lower part of the 6 GHz band is looked at for unlicensed use, providing 480 MHz compared with the 1.2 GHz set aside in the U.S., she said. “Regulation is ready” for low-power indoor use and very-low-power use outside in lower 6 GHz, but regulators are still discussing higher power use.

Europe is also still studying the upper 6 GHz band and conducting technical studies, including on shared use, Guiducci said. No decision will be made before mid-2027, she said: “In Europe we cannot say how the band is going to be used, but certainly we are investing a lot of effort and work … to get awareness of if sharing is possible.”

In the U.S., it's difficult to compare the approach of different regions on the key bands, said Uwe Loewenstein, counselor in the Radiocommunication Bureau at the ITU. “Harmonization would be good, but as we all know, each market is different,” he said. The regions “have different requirements and … actual needs.”

Spectrum decisions should be supported by “market studies” and “real actual needs,” Loewenstein said. He warned that wireless carriers, unlicensed advocates and the satellite industry make demands based on their individual interests, which can exaggerate their actual needs.

Wi-Fi has had a couple of difficult years commercially, said Dean Bubley, consultant at Disruptive Analysis. “At the moment, I’m seeing a distinct upswing … in terms of the health of the sector, but also in terms of innovation, use cases and general sort of transformation … around things like spectrum policy.”

Many service providers are thinking about how they can take advantage of Wi-Fi 7, the new generation of Wi-Fi, Bubley said. Increasing numbers of providers “are marketing Wi-Fi 7 and its capabilities,” he said, with some guaranteeing 100 Mbps minimum service in every room in the house. Spectrum sharing in various forms will become “the future of pretty much all forms of wireless, especially 6G,” he predicted. “There’s no more clear spectrum, and it’s getting ever harder to move incumbent users … out of the bands, whether that’s military, … fixed-wireless links” or “a whole range of satellite and maritime and aviation use cases.”