Remarks of Assistant Secretary Arielle Roth at the 2026 CTIA Summit

In a prior spectrum speech, I compared spectrum reallocation to my packed minivan—everyone fighting over seats, a struggle to balance competing needs, and someone in the back dramatically announcing they never wanted to go on this trip to begin with. And as a mom of six, I can tell you—my eight-seater minivan is truly at capacity. No amount of rearranging is going to create a ninth spot. Spectrum is different. We’re not stuck with a fixed number of seats. We can reconfigure, modernize, and make more room. And while my minivan just racks up wear and tear with every mile, spectrum works differently: the more efficiently we use it, the more value it creates. In my minivan, harmful interference escalates quickly, the noise floor takes the form of a crying infant, and spurious emissions amount to intermittent but very noticeable kicks to the back of your seat. But with spectrum, we’re not destined to be exasperated parents—we can engineer around these challenges and make the whole system work better. And that’s exactly what we’re doing. Now, I know from talking to many of you that it can still feel like you’re standing in the driveway, ready to go, wondering about the ETA. That impatience is understandable—and frankly, it’s a good thing. Because this is a pivotal moment for American leadership in 5G and 6G, the next generation of wireless will power advances in AI, robotics, and beyond, and that leadership will shape both our economic future and our national security. And it all starts with getting spectrum policy right—here at home and on the global stage.