Pai: Wireless Industry Will Need More Spectrum Beyond 800 MHz 'Pipeline'

Pai met with reporters a few days before CTIA releases the results of its annual survey, which will put a number on the annual surge in demand for wireless data. Picked for the top job at CTIA in March (see 2503120036), Pai is a former FCC chair.

The reconciliation package, signed into law in July (see 2507070045), gave the industry and administration “a pretty clear target to shoot for, which is 800 MHz of spectrum, 500 federal, 300 nonfederal,” Pai said. From CTIA’s perspective, “all options that are permitted by law are on the table.” The group wants to ensure that the consumer trend of using more and more data “will continue to be accommodated in the years to come,” he said.

Pai noted that the 800 MHz of midband spectrum for 6G doesn’t mean carriers won’t need other spectrum in the future. “I don’t think we’re there yet. Clearly Congress doesn’t think so either.”

Under Pai, the FCC set aside 1,200 MHz in the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use (see 2004240011). The final reconciliation legislation doesn’t exempt 6 GHz from reallocation. Pai said he’s now open to looking at part of that band for licensed use. “That’s obviously a decision that the FCC is going to have to confront,” he said. “My own view is we shouldn’t preemptively take any options off the table.”

Carriers need an “all-of-the-above” strategy -- “anything that allows them to use these scarce resources in a way that meets the needs of consumers,” Pai said: That includes making more bands available, spectrum reuse, densification of networks and greater use of technical advances like massive multiple-input multiple-output technology.

Pai is confident Carr and the FCC staff will be able to develop a way to auction the upper C band, he said, similar to the lower parts of the band auctioned while he was chairman. The reconciliation bill requires an upper C-band auction within two years. “This isn’t the first rodeo for any of the stakeholders,” he said. “We understand now more than we did in 2019 and 2020,” including “what the terms of the debate are going to be [and] what the goals are for everybody involved.”

Before the record-setting C-band auction, “we reached out proactively to broadcasters to make sure that the most important services that they provide will continue to be available to consumers, and we did that with other industries as well.” The FCC’s work on that auction, which ended in early 2021, demonstrated the importance of “process” for developing rules for an auction, Pai said.

Critics said the FCC shouldn’t move forward on a C-band auction without congressional approval, he noted. But “had we waited,” the C band still wouldn’t be in use. Pai advised the current FCC to follow the Administrative Procedure Act and do the outreach that’s needed. “Time is not on the side of the American consumer. They are always going to be relying on [their] devices more than ever.”

Pai also said issues related to radio altimeters are being addressed (see 2508220036). Protections for the safety devices, which use adjacent spectrum, slowed initial C-band deployments by Verizon and AT&T. “There is a productive conversation going on,” he said. “We’re hopeful that this will result in a favorable resolution of any lingering concerns.”

Asked about the lower 3 GHz band, which isn't on the table for reallocation, Pai said, “The grass can always be greener.” He urged industry and regulators to keep an open mind on carriers' use of high-band spectrum. “It was not that long ago that spectrum that was above 2 GHz was thought to be unusable.”

The Trump administration has pushed for smartphones to be manufactured in the U.S., but Pai said it remains to be seen whether that will happen. “That’s something that we consider to be important,” he said. “Certainly, our members and others in the supply chain have been moving a lot of manufacturing facilities to the United States.”