Radio frequency spectrum is scarce, and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA), said last Thursday the United States needs more of it. Warner said more spectrum is needed not only to bolster innovation, but also because spectrum is becoming increasingly crowded with users and applications.
During a conversation with Punchbowl News, Warner said the Biden administration’s National Spectrum Strategy “is directionally right” as it aims to free up wireless spectrum. “We have to free up more spectrum,” Warner said. “You just need more of it. I mean, this is beachfront property,” he said, according to MeriTalk. “They are not making more spectrum. So, how do we free up more of ours?”
The senator said RF spectrum carries data and voice communications to smartphones and other devices and plays a crucial role in innovation. “When we’re competing against China, they can wall off big blocks of spectrum and say, ‘Here’s where we’re going to go with 5G and 6G and beyond.’ And if we are trying to nibble a little bit here or there, that’s not a good way to approach it,” Warner explained.
The senator also pointed to the FCC’s effort to reimburse carriers that “rip and replace” untrusted equipment from Huawei and ZTE from the communications service providers’ networks. “We’ve got things like ‘rip and replace,’ where we were so slow at making the case that Huawei was a national security concern that now we’ve got to spend taxpayer dollars to rip out the equipment,” Warner said, according to MeriTalk. “We’ve got to finish that.”
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
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