Battle for CBRS Spectrum

There is a huge battle brewing at the Federal Communications Commission over the use of Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. The pieces are starting to fall in place to possibly auction the spectrum for use by cellular carriers. The idea of putting the spectrum up for auction has been discussed for several years, but the topic went into high gear in 2024 when AT&T asked the FCC to open a formal docket to explore the idea. AT&T’s request was opposed by a diverse set of industry stakeholders, and the FCC didn’t take any action on the AT&T request. One of the stumbling blocks to the AT&T request is that this spectrum is used by the military, primarily by the Navy. The Department of Defense just removed that hurdle and is circulating a spectrum plan where it would relocated its functions being handled by CBRS spectrum to the 3.1-3.4 GHz band. The other new change is that Congress now seems gung-ho to reauthorize FCC spectrum auctions as a way to meet budget goals. In the House version of the new budget is an assumption that new spectrum auctions will be able to raise $88 billion. That claim seems high since the FCC has only raised a total of $233 billion from spectrum auctions since the process began in 1991.