NTIA Recommends Auctioning 5 MHz of Spectrum as First Step Toward Meeting Pipeline Goals
NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth announced Wednesday that she's sending a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr asking the agency to launch an auction of the 1675-1680 MHz band. It would be the first 5 MHz of the 500 MHz that NTIA is required to identify for auction under the reconciliation package, signed into law in July (see 2507070045). Carr aide Arpan Sura said the FCC is “laser-focused” on the upper C band for what is likely to be the only major spectrum auction in the next few years. Both spoke at NTIA’s spectrum policy symposium.
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Roth said NTIA is also assessing four other spectrum bands in the range set by the legislation -- 1680-1695, 2700-2900, 4400-4940 and 7125-7400 MHz. “These bands offer opportunities for larger channel bandwidths needed for 5G and future 6G networks and have the potential to generate substantial auction revenues … while modernizing federal operations.” NTIA expects to make progress on all four bands within the next year and to exceed a requirement that it identify 200 MHz for auction within two years, Roth said.
The FCC has been studying the 1675-1680 MHz band, previously assigned to Ligado, since 2019 (see 1906050062), and in January, it sought to refresh the record (see 2501080067). “Its reallocation will result in a win-win for incumbent user NOAA and the American public,” Roth said.
The upper C band is “our first, our best, and potentially our only shot to get a large amount of midband spectrum into the market by the end of this administration,” Sura said. “It’s a very important priority for us. ... We’re under the gun, and we have to be in lockstep coordination” with the FAA.
The “good news” is that the FCC has auctioned C-band spectrum before, Sura noted. “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel,” he said. “There are a lot of things we’ve learned that work,” while other things can be changed. “We’re very optimistic about getting this done.”
Spectrum sharing is really “another way of talking about deconfliction,” Sura said. The reconciliation bill talks about spectrum for full-power licensed use, but that “doesn’t eliminate the need to deconflict by time, by geography, by spectrum, using all the tried-and-true methods that we’ve always had.”
The government needs to get out of the way and make spectrum available, Roth said. From a decadelong delay on AM radio in the 1940s to the “foot dragging” on cellular licensing in the 1980s, “government gatekeeping too often sidelined America’s innovators and left valuable spectrum underutilized.” Balancing the competing needs for spectrum is difficult, “but I’m a mom of six kids, and balancing competing needs comes with the territory.” Roth plans to "bring that balancing mindset to spectrum policy,” she said. “You can’t let the debate drag on forever.”
While it's unknown what the killer app for 6G will be, Roth said, it must be developed in the U.S. “as a matter of both our economic and national security.” At a closed-door NTIA town hall last week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick “drove home” the message that “the U.S. must lead on 6G,” Roth said. “We need clear and decisive action to get more spectrum in the marketplace as soon as possible.”
Roth also discussed the importance of unlicensed spectrum, noting that Wi-Fi carries most mobile network traffic. “Wi-Fi remains an area where we dominate,” she said. “China knows it can’t compete … and looks for ways to sabotage the very ingenuity that made Wi-Fi a global standard.” Roth also stressed the importance of the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027. “We must go in united, confident and ready to lead,” she said, adding that the U.S. will oppose Chinese attempts to redefine the 6 GHz band allocated in the U.S. for Wi-Fi.
FAA, DOD, NOAA Efforts
The FAA is “also laser-focused” on upper C-band spectrum, said Chief Counsel William McKenna. All the bands being looked at will require “considerable planning and coordination to get it right.” In addition, the FAA is considering reallocation of the 2700-2900 MHz band, where it has airport surveillance radar systems, which are scheduled to be replaced, as well as other operations, he said.
DOD is looking closely at ways to make more military spectrum available for licensed use, said Col. Scott McLaughlin, deputy director of electromagnetic spectrum policy and programs for the DOD chief information officer. We’re evaluating “what we can share and what we can vacate.” DOD fully supports the president’s “economic goals and initiatives” but needs time and resources to conduct the necessary studies.
McLaughlin mentioned the possibility of the military vacating parts of the lower 7 GHz band. “We’re very focused [on] finding ways to share.”
Irene Parker, deputy assistant administrator for systems at NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, said her agency is “comfortable” with making some 7 GHz spectrum available for licensed use. “We think we can probably work with industry to ensure that we can still protect our NOAA mission satellites.”
Deputy NTIA Administrator Adam Cassady said holding the WRC in China in 2027 will mean “a variety of challenges” for the U.S. “We’re going to go and kick ass, but it’s going to be difficult.” The U.S. government “has to speak with one voice and make sure that we’re all tightly knit together.”
"We join with … Roth in opposing efforts by China and its allies to limit Wi-Fi’s success and growth around the world," NCTA said in a statement. "As the internet’s wireless workhorse, Wi-Fi not only carries between 80% to 90% of all data consumed on mobile devices, but it supports competition and innovation in cable’s mobile offerings that provide significant savings to American families.”