DOD Floats Vacating 420 MHz of Spectrum for Auction but Retaining Lower 3 GHz Band
DOD has floated a compromise to the wireless industry that vacates military-controlled bands to 420 MHz available for FCC auction while maintaining its grip on the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, the main battleground in Capitol Hill’s protracted talks on a compromise airwaves legislative package. DOD’s proposal, first reported by Punchbowl News, circulated as the Senate prepared to move on an amended version of the House-passed budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 14), which will provide a blueprint for a coming reconciliation package that Republicans hope to use to move spectrum legislation (see 2501290057).
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DOD proposed March 25 that the U.S. military fully vacate 125 MHz on the 7125-7250 MHz band adjacent to airwaves the military uses for radar, satellite and other classified systems. The Pentagon would also vacate portions of three other frequencies, including 75 MHz on 5850-5895 MHz, also known as the U-NII-4 band, which it currently uses for tactical, anti-air and shipborne radar. The other proposed frequencies were 70 MHz on the 1780-1850 MHz band, which DOD uses for long-range radar, and 50 MHz on the 1300-1350 MHz band, used for radio relay, tracking and spacecraft communications.
DOD proposed moving radar systems currently on the 3550-3650 GHz citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band onto the lower 3 GHz band, which it said would “create 100 MHz of auctionable spectrum.” The Pentagon said its proposal “will make 640 MHz of spectrum available for auction,” but it factors in an additional 220 MHz from a potential FCC auction of the 3.98-4.2 GHz upper C band. The proposal said current legislative proposals would require DOD to fully vacate the lower 3 GHz and 7 GHz bands. During his Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in January, now-Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to lean against repurposing any of the lower 3 GHz band for commercial use (see 2501140082). Pentagon officials have since fully briefed him on DOD spectrum issues, lobbyists told us.
Communications lobbyists told us DOD’s current proposal is unlikely to satisfy backers of the 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act championed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas. That measure would require NTIA to identify at least 2,500 MHz of midband spectrum to reallocate within the next five years. Cruz has said he wants the Spectrum Pipeline Act to form the basis of an airwaves reconciliation title but has thus far faced resistance from Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and other top Hill DOD backers (see 2502190068).
“This proposal seems designed primarily to show that, if necessary, DOD could consolidate some operations that free up more spectrum,” Michael Calabrese, director of New America’s Wireless Future Program, said in an email. He cautioned that moving Navy radars from CBRS doesn’t add 100 MHz for auction “since 70 megahertz has already been auctioned.” It “also would pull the rug out from under more than 1,000 CBRS operators that have deployed more than 400,000 base stations,” Calabrese said: “While they could, in theory, share DOD spectrum lower in the band, that spectrum will now be so congested it’s unclear how or when that could be implemented.”