Broadcasters Say FCC’s Upper C-Band Proposal Clears Too Much

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2025 – The Federal Communications Commission must confront a sharp split between broadcasters and 5G providers over how much of the Upper C-band can be safely cleared for auction.

The FCC's draft plan up for a vote on Nov. 20 envisions clearing as much as 180 megahertz, but also states the FCC’s ultimate goal remains “repurposing the maximum amount of spectrum for terrestrial mobile broadband” possible.

Wireless trade association CTIA has pressed the FCC to stretch that figure to 220 megahertz. But incumbent users, led by the National Association of Broadcasters, have urged the FCC to hold the line at the 100 megahertz Congress required, warning that anything more risks destabilizing the nation’s broadcast distribution system.

Under the budget reconciliation measure dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the FCC must auction 300 megahertz of its spectrum holdings, including at least 100 megahertz of the Upper C-band by July 2027. The FCC’s draft plan floats going well beyond that minimum, sparking the dispute now playing out between mobile carriers and broadcasters.

Broadcasters have 'exhausted their options,' NAB says

In separate meetings this week with senior counsel to Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty, representatives from NAB argued that broadcasters had “exhausted their options” after the Lower C-band relocation in 2021, which compressed most operations into the 3.98 to 4.2 GigaHertz (GHz) segment.

“Incumbent relocations out of C-band will be dramatically more expensive and lengthier than was required following Auction 107 [the FCC’s 2021 Lower C-band auction], a process that took nearly three years,” NAB’s ex parte, submitted by Allison Martin, vice president of innovation and strategy, states.

NAB argued that broadcasters only avoided major upheaval last time because they were moved into the exact spectrum the FCC now wants to repurpose.

“The Lower C-band reallocation succeeded largely because most incumbents were accommodated within the Upper C-band,” NAB argued. “The reallocation of a portion of the Upper C-band will require many incumbents to move to other platforms… and will likely require deploying a combination of different technologies at considerable cost and time.”

NAB also stressed that the Upper C-band remains the most dependable platform for distributing national news, sports, radio programming and emergency information to stations across the country. The group noted that C-band’s resistance to rain fade and its ability to deliver nearly hemispheric coverage from a single satellite make it uniquely suited for broadcast distribution.

CTIA officials bullish on Upper C-band

Meanwhile, CTIA representatives met with senior counsel to Carr and Trusty on Nov. 7 to reiterate support for clearing as much of the band as can be transitioned. 

“The Upper C-band holds great promise, and CTIA urged the FCC to take full advantage of this opportunity to enable as much investment as possible in next-generation wireless services,” CTIA’s ex parte filing states.

Other stakeholders, including​​ satellite operator SES, an incumbent in the band, met with FCC staff Monday to emphasize its commitment to working with the agency on Upper C-band clearing, but stressed the technical complexity, timeline and cost of clearing the band. 

SES said appropriate reimbursement of relocation costs and accelerated clearing payments would enable a successful, swift transition.

A separate filing from the North American Spectrum Alliance, a coalition representing broadcasters, sports leagues, satellite operators and major production vendors, urged the FCC to broaden the proposed rulemaking to address a series of unresolved questions.

Those include how existing traffic could be accommodated if more than 100 megahertz is cleared, what constitutes “comparable” replacement facilities, and how widely relocation costs should be reimbursed.

Relatedly, on Wednesday, a coalition of twenty-one tribal governments and digital rights groups urged the FCC to include a tribal licensing window before auctioning the Upper C-band.

Supporters said the move would follow a 2019 initiative under former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai that gave tribes a first opportunity to apply for 2.5 GHz licenses.

The same companies pushing for more Upper C-band spectrum now, Verizon/Cellco, AT&T and T-Mobile, were also the largest buyers in the 2021 Lower C-band auction, which generated more than $81 billion in winning bids.