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 9, 2024 – More spectrum will be necessary to expand 5G mobile networks in the United States, experts said at CES on Tuesday.

“We need to not only open up more spectrum bands, we need to use them as efficiently as possible,” said Chris Lewis, president and CEO of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge.

Lewis cited as a step in the right direction the National Spectrum Strategy, a plan put forward by the White House in November to study almost 2,800 MHz for potential repurposing and to set up a long-term spectrum planning framework.

Beefing up the nation’s spectrum pipeline, as well as promoting unlicensed use and dynamic spectrum sharing, should be positive for 5G adoption going forward, Lewis said.

The plan “set down the right principles to move forward,” he said.

For all that to come to fruition, the Federal Communications Commission will need its spectrum auction authority renewed, something the Commission has been pushing lawmakers on. Congress let the authority lapse for the first time in March, and efforts to reinstate it have stalled. 

A stopgap measure was passed in December allowing the Commission to issue licenses that had been purchased before the lapse. Those will be used, largely by T-Mobile, to expand 5G footprints.

The World Radiocommunications Conference also tapped in December several hundred megahertz of spectrum for licensed, mobile use globally, part of an effort to help satiate the demand for growing 5G networks.

Some of that has already been reserved for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use in the United States.

Chris Emmons, vice president of devices and accessories at Verizon, said freeing up more spectrum would allow the company to continue expanding home broadband on its 5G networks. Some states have flagged concerns about the capacity on those networks, as cell traffic is prioritized during congestion, but Emmons said fixed wireless broadband is more adequate on 5G networks than on previous standards.

“Fixed wireless access for consumers has been a dream for a long time,” he said. “There were 3G attempts, there were 4G attempts… There have been a lot of things that people have tried over the years, but we’ve actually seen a fixed wireless solution now that scales successfully.”

“As long as we continue to get the spectrum we need, we will engineer that properly and provide for all these use cases,” Emmons said.