Skyrocketing Wireless Demand Spurs Plea for More U.S. Spectrum

Companies are pressing the government to maintain a steady supply of spectrum to meet the booming U.S. demand for wireless technology.

Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration need to release new spectrum bands, industry groups plan to tell a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Wednesday. Representatives from Cisco Systems Inc. and Intel Corp., among others, will testify.

The U.S.'s finite spectrum supply, used for radio, satellite, and wireless internet services, is increasingly crowded. Cellphone use in the U.S. has more than tripled since 2016, topping 42 trillion megabytes in 2020, according to a survey from CTIA, an industry trade group, released last year. The federal government has been forced to make tough decisions about access, including balancing the needs of aviation and cellphone companies in the rollout of 5G.

The groups are making their pitch as the FCC faces a Sept. 30 deadline to reauthorize the FCC’s spectrum auction authority, which allows the agency to sell access to wireless service providers. Specific auction directives could be tacked on to the bill.

A 5G cell tower in Orem, Utah on Jan. 11, 2022.

Photo: George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel last year held two auctions for mid-band spectrum, considered by the telecommunications industry as optimal for 5G deployment because it is fast and covers a broad area. The agency is now preparing for a third auction later this year of the 2.5 GHz band.

“There is, however, no other spectrum in the FCC’s 5G pipeline,” CTIA Senior Vice President Scott Bergmann noted in his prepared testimony. CTIA represents wireless companies such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and T-Mobile US Inc.

While mid-band spectrum is optimal, groups suggested freeing up space in low and high frequency bands as well.

“It can take significant time to identify and make spectrum available for auction, so it is in our national interest to develop a spectrum pipeline that addresses today’s needs and plans for the future,” Bergmann plans to say.

Interference Checks

Witnesses will call for more timely engineering studies, which are used when clearing spectrum bands to ensure there’s no harmful interference with existing users.

“Replenishing the spectrum pipeline requires not just deciding which bands will be studied, but also ensuring the timely results of studies, and making spectrum available for commercial use,” Jayne Stancavage, global executive director of product and digital infrastructure policy at Intel Corp., wrote in prepared testimony.

Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio), the ranking member on the communications and technology subcommittee, plans to highlight the challenges agencies face when coordinating harmful interference studies.

“We should be looking at how these decisions will build trust in the engineering and certainty in the licensing process. That when a decision is made, all users can accept the result and not work to further undermine it,” Latta’s prepared remarks state.

Conflicting studies from federal agencies have hampered auctions. Most recently, the Federal Aviation Administration fought the FCC’s plans to roll out 5G on the C-Band over concerns it would impede the ability to safely land planes.

“Recent disputes among individual executive branch agencies have presented claims of potential interference concerns after auctions have been completed, contrary to studies based on science and outside of the typical spectrum coordination processes,” Von Todd, chief executive of corporate strategy and analytics at internet provider HTC Inc., wrote in testimony.

Spectrum Regulators’ Effort to Work Together Wins Plaudits

The groups will also call for NTIA to be the executive branch’s voice in spectrum negotiations with the FCC. The FCC is in charge of licensing commercial and noncommercial spectrum users, while NTIA manages and represents the federal government’s spectrum.

“Fostering a climate of collaboration instead of contention will require some new approaches,” Mary Brown, a senior director at Cisco Systems Inc., said in her prepared testimony. “Most fundamentally, Congress should make clear to NTIA and to the Executive Branch generally that it wants NTIA to be the lead agency on spectrum matters.”