LAS VEGAS, January 12, 2024 – A senior National Telecommunications and Information Administration advisor and the chief lawyers for both Democratic and Republican sides of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology talked about their spectrum policy priorities on Thursday at CES.

The group touted U.S. wins at the World Radiocommunication Conference in Dubai, as well as lawmakers’ goals for spectrum auction authority heading into 2024.

World Radio Congress

Going into the conference, in which representatives from around the world meet to coordinate spectrum usage, “the 6 GigaHertz (GHz) issue was the top priority of the U.S. government,” said Phil Murphy, a senior advisor at the NTIA.

The band was set aside in 2020 by the Federal Communications Commission for unlicensed use in the United States, but some countries like China wanted to see some of the band tapped for 5G mobile use, Murphy said.

The U.S. delegation was ultimately able to deliver in December: the conference decision set aside 700 MegaHertz (MHz) for mobile, but left the door open for regulatory agencies to approve unlicensed use throughout the band.

That’s a win for the American Wi-Fi industry: the Wi-Fi alliance announced its official Wi-Fi 7 certification on Monday ahead of the tech conference. The new generation supports wider spectrum channels and multi-link operation, both of which will make use of the 1,200 MHz of real estate in the 6 GHz band.

“We’re really excited by the results,” Murphy said. “We’re really excited to see 6 GHz moving forward, not just here in the United States, but in other parts of the world as well.”

Auction authority

The Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction and issue licenses for the commercial use of electromagnetic spectrum expired for the first time in March 2023. That’s not an issue for technologies like Wi-Fi, which don’t require such licenses to operate in bands set aside for unlicensed use, but it is important for ever-expanding 5G networks and wireless broadband.

“The Chair’s number one priority is to reauthorize the FCC spectrum auction authority that expired in March,” said Kate O’Connor, chief counsel for the Republican majority on the communications and technology subcommittee. “Even if it hasn’t been public, there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes.”

Jennifer Epperson, chief counsel for the Democratic side of the subcommittee, and Murphy, the NTIA advisor, agreed on the importance of the issue. 

“I think reauthorizing the FCC’s spectrum auction authority is a priority for the administration as well,” he said. “There’s probably spectrum that the FCC has available to auction right now, but they can’t because they don’t have the authority to do so.”

At a House oversight hearing in November, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said “I have a bunch of bands sitting in the closet at the FCC,” pointing to 550 MHz in the 12.7-13.25 GHz band as spectrum the agency could go to auction with “relatively quickly.”

Efforts at blanket reauthorization have stalled publicly since a bill cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee in May, but a stopgap measure allowing the Commission to issue licenses that had been purchased before the lapse was signed into law in December.

“With the funding bills coming up, we’re taking a look and hoping that we can turn this on as soon as possible,” O’Connor said.

LAS VEGAS, January 11, 2024 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is planning to have an implementation plan for the National Spectrum Strategy in March, a senior agency official said at CES on Thursday.

“We have an implementation plan that’s going to be out sometime in March,” said Phil Murphy, a senior advisor at the NTIA. “We’re really excited about the next steps.” 

The White House first unveiled the plan in November. It involves studying nearly 2,800 megahertz of spectrum for potential repurposing amid growing commercial demand. The plan also calls for a revamped spectrum pipeline with increased communication between government agencies and the private sector, as well as establishing a testbed for spectrum sharing.

The Biden administration also tasked the NTIA with producing an implementation plan within 120 days, putting the planned March release near the end of the agency’s window.

The implementation plan will, according to the NTIA, set up specific outcomes for each of the strategy’s “strategic objectives.” The plan will also designate responsible parties and set out start dates and timelines for their work.

Those strategic objectives are peppered throughout the strategy document, numbering 12 in total. They include ensuring spectrum resources are available for government and the private sector, developing an evidence-based spectrum allocation methodology, a spectrum research and development plan, and improving policymakers’ understanding of spectrum issues.

The agency took public comments on the implementation plan until January 2.

LAS VEGAS, January 10, 2024 – The National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced on Wednesday a $50-million grant to DISH Wireless from the agency’s Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund.

The money will go to the establishment of the company’s Open RAN Center for Integration and Deployment, or ORCID. The Cheyenne, Wyoming-based testing facility will allow companies to test equipment and software to ensure their technology works with existing 5G networks. The funding for ORCID is an attempt to allow smaller vendors to enter the market. 

“Today’s market for wireless equipment is static and highly consolidated. Just a few firms today provide the full set of radios and computers that power mobile phones,” NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said at an announcement event in Las Vegas. 

Some of those providers Davidson noted, “pose national security risks to the U.S. and our allies around the world.” That’s in part a reference to Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE, who are barred from federally subsidized networks by the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act. 

That law provided $1.9 billion to reimburse providers for the replacement of the companies’ equipment, but the effort has stalled amid a funding shortfall and other supply chain issues – the Commission told Congress last week that just five companies have completed their replacements.

The ORCID facility is set to use open RAN hardware and spectrum bands owned by DISH, now a subsidiary of EchoStar, as a test bed for vendors to ensure the interoperability of their equipment. Open RAN refers to open radio access networks, or networks built with generic components rather than proprietary ones produced by a handful of large suppliers.

The company’s experience with its existing open RAN network puts it in a good position to help companies looking to enter the space, said Charlie Ergen, EchoStar co-founder and chairman.

“We learned some hard lessons regarding how to best deploy open RAN, lessons we will bring to and leverage at ORCID,” he said.The NTIA also announced $30 million in Innovation Fund grants to five additional recipients. The agency has now awarded a total of more than $98 million from the $1.5 billion CHIPS Act program. Up to $140 million is set to be made available through the first round of funding.