Cable and Wireless Lobbyists Go to War Over Spectrum Auctions
Mobile carriers and cable heat up spectrum dispute as Congress works to reauthorize the FCC's ability to auction spectrum licenses.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11, 2025 – The fight over how to allocate spectrum is heating up in Washington, with two of the telecom industry’s most powerful players– 5G carriers and cable companies – accusing each other of being monopolists and robber barons.
CTIA, which represents the mobile wireless industry, partnered with 5G Americas, another trade group, to launch a PR campaign against the cable giants Monday. Under the banner "End the Cableopoly," the duo accused cable of attempting “to undermine competition from 5G home broadband by starving wireless providers of the spectrum needed to expand access and help close the digital divide.”
NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, which represents the cable industry, was quick to fire back.
“Big Mobile’s sham coalition is nothing more than a smokescreen to hide the fact that today’s wireless robber barons want to advance policies that will allow them to hoard more public spectrum for their exclusive use, denying access to other innovators and wrecking national security in the process,” the group said in a statement.
The wireless carriers want more exclusive licenses to be the sole occupier of a given band and use it at higher power levels. It’s the kind of spectrum that powers their mobile networks, which can use excess capacity to provide home broadband that competes with cable’s wireline business.
Cable favors unlicensed or shared spectrum. Charter and Comcast have deals with Verizon to provide mobile service – the two cable giants count more than 17 million mobile subscribers between them – but they offload the large majority of their traffic via unlicensed Wi-Fi, leading to lower fees. Less licensed spectrum also means less spectrum for 5G fixed broadband, which would have more room to grow with more capacity.
The timing is likely not an accident.
Republicans in Congress are planning to include in upcoming budget legislation a measure restoring the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction off spectrum licenses. If it’s included, the question is whether it would come with strings attached that mandate the government identify either a certain band or a certain quantity of airwaves to auction off for exclusive licenses.
CTIA has made clear it would support such a pipeline, as it would guarantee more licensed airwaves.
Jake Neenan
In addition to opposition from cable, the Defense Department and lawmakers on the Armed Services Committee could potentially frustrate that effort, as the military occupies much of the remaining mid-band spectrum eyed by 5G carriers.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, responsible for managing federal spectrum, is studying some of those bands – the lower 3 GigaHertz (GHz) and 7/8 GHz – for potential repurposing as part of a Biden-era initiative. Those studies are slated to complete in October 2026.
