After the FCC went more than two years from March 2023 to July 2025 without the ability to conduct spectrum auctions, Congress included a provision restoring the agency’s authority to so in the budget bill that passed last week.
Impact: While the controversial bill faced a lot of opposition on a range of topics before its passage, the auction authority and a requirement that calls for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to find additional spectrum available for 5G use were good news for much of the wireless industry. Passage of the bill restored the agency’s authority to conduct spectrum auctions through September 30, 2034, after Congress failed to renew that authority in March 2023 over a dispute related to the lower 3 GHz band (3.1 GHz-3.45 GHz) and U.S. military operations in that band. According to LightReading, that was the first time in history (dating to 1993) that Congress had failed to extend the FCC’s auction authority and made 2024 the first full year in history where the FCC didn’t conduct a spectrum auction. First up now that the authority has been restored will be an auction of returned AWS-3 licenses from Dish Network entities. That auction will occur in 2026 and fund the federal rip-and-replace program to remove Chinese equipment from Huawei and ZTE from U.S. wireless networks. But the FCC’s ability to conduct that auction had already been approved as a one-off in an earlier piece of legislation and isn’t tied to the newly approved auction authority that runs for the next nine years.
The bill also gave NTIA two years to identify at least 800 MHz of spectrum between 1.3 GHz and 10 GHz to reallocate for exclusive, non-federal 5G use, with the 3.1 GHz-3.45 GHz and 7.4 GHz-8.4 GHz bands excluded to protect them for U.S. Department of Defense use. Per the legislation, the FCC must auction off at least 200 MHz of spectrum identified by NTIA within three years of the bill’s passage (July 2028) and complete auctions for any remaining identified spectrum within six years of enactment, or July 2031. The auction directive is not without controversy, however. The recent changes to the federal BEAD program that removed the Biden Administration’s fiber preference and that opened participation to so-called alternative technologies includes unlicensed fixed wireless providers. That appears to be in direct conflict with the budget bill’s spectrum auction requirements in which the spectrum used by unlicensed FWA providers includes bands under consideration for reallocation, specifically the CBRS and 6 GHz Wi-Fi bands used in rural areas. NTIA appears to have conflicting assignments that will have to be resolved before either directive can move forward, because unlicensed FWA operates in those bands and would need that spectrum to participate in BEAD. The conflict didn’t go entirely unnoticed during Congressional negotiations, but while the legislation’s final text includes an acknowledgement that not all mid-band spectrum should be up for auction, none of the spectrum used for unlicensed fixed wireless or Wi-Fi received specific protections in the final bill, leading to concerns about what will come of unlicensed FWA providers and the customers they serve who depend on access to those bands if any of the spectrum does get selected for auction.
The wireless industry had a surprisingly muted response to both spectrum-related provisions, likely because they didn’t include access to the lower 3 GHz band. An AT&T statement hailed passage of the bill and praised the establishment of a mid
-band spectrum pipeline that will help it and rival carriers keep up with growing demand. Other carriers, including T-Mobile and Verizon, have yet to release statements about the restoration of the FCC’s auction authority or the potential for mid-band 5G spectrum, though the Telecommunications Industry Association praised those parts of the legislation. Wireless industry group WISPA appeared less thrilled with the spectrum-related aspects of the bill, citing concerns about the lack of protections for the spectrum bands its smaller members use to provide services and the potential those bands could be reallocated for larger carriers to use in their 5G networks.
