If CBRS is wasted spectrum, what do you call rural 5G?

A recurrent theme from US cellular industry commentary in recent years has been complaints about supposedly unused or underused spectrum that could be put to "better" use. Yet there is surprisingly little focus on the major carriers' own fallow and underused spectrum assets, which deserve similar scrutiny. We have heard repeated claims that Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum is not used sufficiently or that dynamic sharing mechanisms are allegedly inefficient. The benefits of technology innovation and new deployment models are downplayed. Recently, the industry has tried to suggest that the Federal Communications Commission's relatively recent groundbreaking and internationally emulated release of unlicensed 6GHz spectrum should be partly reversed in order to emulate some countries'—notably China's—choices for 6G. The message from organizations such as CTIA and its favorite consultancies is familiar: if spectrum is not used in the way CTIA's members prefer—by large mobile operators, under exclusive, high-power licenses—then it is somehow badly allocated or even wasted. But that argument now looks increasingly selective, if not outright hypocritical.

[Dean Bubley is the Founder and Director of Disruptive Analysis]