Sharing

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.

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum band is increasingly delivering many of the most important innovations, competitive pressures, and consumer benefits in the wireless marketplace. By enabling new entrants to deploy localized wireless infrastructure and offload traffic onto privately managed spectrum, CBRS is creating new forms of competition that were previously impossible without billions of dollars in auction spending. To support the wireless data needs of U.S.

AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have an agreement in principle to form a new joint venture which aims to help end wireless dead zones in the U.S., including in rural areas, by pooling limited spectrum resources to increase capacity, improve the customer experience, and help satellite providers reach more customers through a unified platform. The JV remains subject to negotiating definitive agreements between the parties and satisfying customary closing conditions.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Report and Order that revises the spectrum sharing framework for Geostationary Orbit and Non-Geostationary Orbit systems that currently relies on NGSO systems complying with Equivalent Power Flux Density limits developed in the late-1990s.

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service community has a message for anyone pushing for higher CBRS power levels: back off. CBRS proponents held a webinar hosted by New America where they highlighted two studies—one showing how the private wireless CBRS network market is growing and another describing the enormous disruption that would result if higher power levels were introduced. For the past several years, wireless carriers have been pushing for higher power base stations in the 3.55-3.7 GHz CBRS ban

At the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, we are moving with urgency to modernize federal operations, improve efficiency, and get more spectrum into the marketplace. Our goal is to meet and hopefully exceed Congress’ timeline to find the spectrum that will power the next generation of wireless innovation. I look forward to delving into status of the bands we are studying and how we plan to meet our targets. I also want to highlight a new tool from NTIA that will track our progress in real time.

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.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to modernize its satellite spectrum-sharing rules. This is a major step toward enhancing the satellite broadband experience for millions of Americans by enabling faster speeds, lower costs, and greater reliability. This change could also unlock more than $2 billion in economic benefits for the American people and up to seven-fold more capacity for space-based broadband services.

House appropriators are trying to block federal regulators from implementing one company’s plan for a GPS backup, fearing interference on RFID chips and tolling systems. The House Appropriations Committee cleared a bill on April 21 that included the Federal Communications Commission’s fiscal year 2027 budget.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the Commission would vote on an order to modernize its satellite spectrum-sharing rules—a change that could unlock more than $2 billion in economic benefits for the American people and up to seven-fold more capacity for space-based broadband services. Drawing from the state-of-the-art in satellite technology, the FCC’s new technical rules would revise the decades-old framework for how Geostationary Orbit and Non-Geostationary Orbit systems share spectrum.