Rosenworcel, Other Biden Officials Push for US Leadership on 6G at Summit

The White House National Security Council led a 6G summit Friday at the National Science Foundation’s Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters aimed at ensuring the U.S. leads the coming wireless technology’s standards research development and deployment. Officials in part cited a need to prevent China from gaining a foothold on the emerging technology like it has on 5G. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel pushed during the summit for restoring the FCC’s spectrum auction authority as one means of cementing the U.S.' 6G role.

Communications sector officials still see 6G as starting to deploy closer to 2030, with 5G-advanced to come first (see 2303270060). But industry and the FCC have already started preparations, focused on increasing network security, given the dominance of Chinese equipment makers in much of the world. The FCC’s Technological Advisory Council has focused on 6G under Rosenworcel. Business, government and academic experts were among those the Biden administration met with Friday, industry and government officials confirmed.

“We want to take the list of lessons we’ve learned from 5G, about the importance of early involvement and resilience, and to drive an approach to 6G that optimizes performance, accessibility and security,” Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging technology, said during a conference call with reporters ahead of the summit. “We’re at the stage where we can shape and develop” 6G, given the technology is still going through research and development.

Any U.S. failure to lead on 6G could allow China and other “adversaries who have shown a willingness to provide the market by offering distorted incentives, so they can achieve their goals of compromising our security,” another senior administration official told reporters. China could gain advantages in surveillance and network disruption if it becomes a 6G leader, but if it's “is willing to work with us” on the technology’s standards, “we’re very much willing” to collaborate, the official said: “Based on what we’ve observed, that will be a challenge.”

“No one knows yet with precision what 6G will entail,” Rosenworcel said during the summit. “But if we have learned anything from our experience rolling out 5G, it is that wireless policy matters for economic and national security.” That’s true in the U.S. and “globally,” she said: “And in those early days of 5G, there were signals that needed our attention -- from the vulnerabilities of supply chains to the changing dynamics of global standards development to the need for more openness and security. We should learn from what came before and recognize that emerging 6G technology benefits from advanced thought and planning.”

“It may seem strange to be talking about 6G at a time when so many Americans and people around the world are still just learning about 5G and the promises it holds,” NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said during the summit. “We know from past experience that we need to be planning ahead." The "possibility of ubiquitous connectivity with 6G could enable the ability to sense the environment, people and objects,” he said: “This could usher in a new era of situational awareness as well as sustainability and sector efficiencies. But it also raises questions about how authoritarian governments could deploy this technology for further surveillance -- and control -- of their citizens."

“Today’s workshop is full of unique opportunities to work together, learn from one another and create an open and shared platform for discovery and innovation across 6G wireless technologies from the very start,” said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan, who opened the meeting. He called for “future 6G technologies and software that are inherently open, transparent and resilient by design.”

“I'm hoping part of this plan involves a solid national #spectrum plan,” tweeted 5G Americas Vice President Viet Nguyen. “Hard to deliver on #6G if there's no path to securing the #wireless spectrum to make it happen.”

Auction Reauthorization

Rosenworcel cited the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority as a “small, barely recorded moment in history” that if “not corrected … could have big impact” on U.S. 6G leadership. “Restoring this authority will provide” the U.S. “with the strongest foundation to compete in a global economy, counter our adversaries’ technology ambitions, and safeguard our national security,” she said: The upcoming Nov. 20-Dec. 15 World Radiocommunication Conference in Dubai will be “where we set the future of spectrum policy. Restoring the FCC’s auction authority is the first step in doing that, and it is my hope we can do it soon. And when we do, let’s think about building a new spectrum pipeline that that can carry us to 6G.”

House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., told reporters last week she’s at least considering whether to now support a bid by Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., to temporarily renew the authority through Sept. 30 (S-650) after his opposition to a House-passed bill to reauthorize it through May 19 (HR-1108) led to the mandate expiring altogether in early March. “We’re having conversations now” but “haven’t made that decision yet,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers is sounding out other leaders on the House and Senate Commerce committees given they were resistant earlier this year to Rounds’ proposed later deadline, lobbyists told us. The renewed push by the FCC and communications industry groups last week (see 2304200062) indicates stakeholders may be increasingly less willing to allow the commission’s authority to remain lapsed until congressional negotiations result in a deal, especially given HR-1108’s proposed May 19 renewal end-date is now less than a month away, lobbyists said.

Rounds told reporters he still favors passing S-650 if other congressional leaders agree to it over HR-1108, emphasizing his concern remains preventing lawmakers from reaching a deal on a broader spectrum legislative package that would repurpose parts of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for commercial use before DOD finishes a study of its systems on the frequency (see 2303090074).

Rounds cautioned that the study’s completion may not result in his backing including lower 3 GHz language in a final package. “I’m simply not interested in expanding” commercial wireless use “into the DOD space at this time,” he said: “I want to see the report” when the Pentagon releases it later this year and “then we can start making determinations. But I’m very skeptical about the possibilities of finding significant amounts of spectrum in that” frequency.

Rip and Replace

Senate Commerce members Sens. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., filed the Defend Our Networks Act Friday in a bid to find an alternate source for providing an additional $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program given uncertainty about the prospects of proposals to use funding from upcoming spectrum auctions to bridge the program’s shortfall. Lawmakers proposed in a scuttled December spectrum legislative package to use some proceeds from future sales of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band and other frequencies to provide the additional rip and replace money (see 2212190069).

The Defend Our Networks Act would reallocate 3% of unspent and unobligated funding from the FY 2021 appropriations omnibus, the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act and other COVID-19 aid packages to make up the rip and replace program’s deficit. "The current program shortfall is preventing eligible carriers from accessing the resources they need to cover the costs of replacing dangerous network gear," Fischer said. "We can’t let the Chinese government be embedded in our critical telecommunications networks," Hickenlooper said: "We’ve banned their equipment. Now we need to replace what’s already there."

"We have an obligation to help ensure the safety of our Nation’s communications networks," Rosenworcel said. "This responsibility never ends because the threats to network security are always evolving, and... we must do all we can to fully fund the replacement of insecure equipment throughout the country." FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks also praised the measure.

Fully funding rip and replace "is the only way to fulfill this national security mandate and remove untrusted equipment while maintaining connectivity," said Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan. "With deadlines looming, CCA strongly urges Congress to consider all options to provide the funds needed for the ‘rip and replace’ program to succeed."