Starks and Simington Agree on Importance of Restoring FCC Auction Authority

FCC Commissioners Nathan Simington and Geoffrey Starks warned the Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas that the FCC’s loss of general spectrum auction authority last year is hampering U.S. competitive efforts against major rivals in the 6G race. CTIA President Meredith Baker sounded a similar theme at the beginning of the conference, which CTIA sponsors with GSMA (see 2410080044).

The lack of auction authority has “delayed decision-making for the allocation of new commercial spectrum bands for 5G, 6G and beyond” and slowed development of wireless equipment, Simington said. While Congress, the FCC and the NTIA “recognize the growing importance of mid-band spectrum for commercial 5G buildout, not to mention 6G, no additional commercial allocations have happened, nor have they been planned,” he said.

Simington said Congress should immediately restore FCC auction authority. “Congress must also immediately identify and reallocate additional spectrum for exclusive commercial use.”

Auction authority “isn’t just foundational to the agency, it’s foundational to the country as a whole,” added Starks, who, like Simington, spoke at the conference late Wednesday. Starks said he's committed to working with industry and Congress to restore auction authority as quickly as possible.

“Auctions are a critical part of a broader strategy driving advancements in wireless communications,” Starks said: “They support better networks and greater innovation in chips, devices and connected applications.”

CTIA recently reported that last year Americans used more than 100 trillion MBs of mobile wireless data, “the largest single year increase in wireless data ever,” Starks said. “That’s more data than was used from 2010 to 2018 combined and nearly double the amount of data used just two years ago,” he said: “Growth like this is staggering.”

China, Simington argued, is “the biggest threat to U.S. leadership and one that's carefully exploiting America's dithering approach to spectrum policy." China has “streamlined” spectrum management and “aggressively initiated diplomatic efforts supporting its spectrum harmonization goals by investing significant amounts of political and financial capital into the 5G industry in support of raising its profile on the international stage.”

In addition, Simington said the U.S. faces other spectrum issues. For example, it's in danger of becoming “a mid-band spectrum and technology island” with allocations in the 3 and 6 GHz band increasingly diverging from how the bands are used in other nations. While China and parts of Europe have embraced the 6 GHz band for international mobile telecommunications, in the U.S. it's allocated to unlicensed use.

While the Americas generally support that allocation, Brazil, which earmarked the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use, “is now reconsidering that decision and may allow unlicensed use only in the bottom half of the band,” Simington said. He noted that a recent study shows countries representing more than 60% of the global population support 5G in 6 GHz.

Simington noted that federal users in the U.S. occupy 61% of the 3 to 8.4 GHz spectrum that carriers, satellite operators and others are considering for expanding operations. But he held out hope that 7/8 GHz spectrum could be reallocated for high-power licensed use.

“There is evidence that much” of 7.8 GHz is “underutilized by federal operators, making it suitable for reallocation,” Simington said. By making licensed spectrum available “immediately adjacent to other globally allocated licensed IMT bands,” the U.S. could “enable the 7 and 8 GHz bands to be more easily harmonized.”

The 7/8 GHz band is one of five under study in the national spectrum strategy and, with the lower 3 GHz band, has been a top target of carriers. NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson said at MWC studies of both bands are progressing as planned (see 2410090045).

Starks also called for restoration of the affordable connectivity program, which congressional Democratic leadership hopes to attach to a year-end legislative package (see 2409170066). “ACP is the most effective program we’ve had in helping low-income Americans get online and stay online,” Starks said. “It has been the most successful program ever in our decades-long, bipartisan effort to solve the digital divide.”

5G Americas, meanwhile, released a paper Thursday about the importance of 7/8 GHz to carriers. “The 7-8 GHz range combined with advanced antennas allows for four to five times higher spectral efficiency compared to current 5G bands leading to enhanced performance” and “enables the reuse of existing 5G base station sites, significantly reducing the cost of deployment,” the group said. 5G Americas said that while “exclusive licensing is ideal … spectrum sharing may be necessary in certain regions, ensuring flexible and rapid access to the new band.”