CTIA President/CEO Meridith Attwell Baker says the FCC’s auction authority must be restored. The country’s wireless future depends on it.
“Over the past year America’s spectrum policy faced an unprecedented set of challenges that jeopardize America’s 5G leadership and Americans’ ability to reap all of the economic and geopolitical benefits of a dynamic mobile broadband network and the ecosystems it supports,” she says in a new blog post. “To overcome those challenges, 2024 must be a year of action for U.S. policymakers if we are to maintain our global competitiveness, meet rapidly increasing consumer demand, and drive the innovation and growth we all want in the United States.”
Specifically, CTIA says America’s wireless future hinges on:
- Congress restoring FCC auction authority with a forward-looking and comprehensive pipeline of future auctions for 5G and beyond.
- NTIA publishing a robust National Spectrum Strategy Implementation Plan detailing clear targets for future full-power auctions, an expedited two-year study schedule, and clarification that NTIA will lead and manage the new studies.
- The U.S. resolving what CTIA calls “the current spectrum imbalance and quickly providing licensed commercial access to the lower 3 GHz band, correcting the faulty assumptions and incomplete scope of the prior government study,” and,
- The U.S. reasserting its lead on the global stage in driving 5G-friendly access to the 7-to-8 GHz band to help close the nation’s widening deficit of licensed spectrum compared to other countries, create economies of scale with upper 6 GHz licensed wireless deployments around the world, and ensure that the U.S. leads in wireless technologies.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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