Digital Progress Institute Backs Spectrum Pipeline

WASHINGTON, May 6, 2025 – Spectrum is invisible but who gets to control portions of it is one of the most visible policy battles taking place on Capitol Hill this year.

The Digital Progress Institute is asking lawmakers to include a pipeline of spectrum to be sold off after it restores the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction those airwaves, a key priority of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and key players in the wireless industry.

“Frankly, Congress not considering this option to offset its spending is legislative malfeasance,” DPI president Joel Thayer wrote in a Tuesday letter to House leadership. “Reauthorizing the FCC's spectrum auction authority with a spectrum pipeline is an opportunity to bring in revenue and better ensure the integrity of wireless networks well within Trump's presidential tenure.”

DPI bills itself as nonpartisan. It has advocated for more spectrum utilization generally and for preserving the now-shuttered Affordable Connectivity Program. Thayer worked as a clerk for former Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and as a staffer for former Reps. Lee Terry, R-Neb., and Mary Bono, R-Calif.

Republicans are aiming to include an auction reauthorization in an upcoming budget reconciliation bill to help pay for tax cuts. It remains to be seen if the legislation will include requirements that a minimum number of airwaves or certain bands be auctioned off.

A pipeline is a key priority of the major wireless carriers, who are eager to get their hands on more airwaves after the FCC’s auction authority lapsed in March 2023. That’s been opposed by the cable industry, which now competes for fixed broadband subscribers with 5G fixed wireless, and the Defense Department, which has seen the prospect as all but a mandate to give up its lower 3 GigaHertz band.

The mobile industry has been pursuing access to a portion of the band because of its favorable characteristics for 5G, but the military claims it would be too expensive and time-consuming to move essential radar systems. Thayer called the band “ripe for auction” in his letter.

Cruz has been pushing for a pipeline of some kind in the reconciliation bill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which handles telecom, is now set to markup its reconciliation package next week after a delay.

Defense Department Proposal

For its part, the DoD has circulated a plan to satiate the carrier’s demand for airwaves in part by auctioning some spectrum in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, according to analysts at New Street Research. The proposal would not involve any commercial access to the lower 3 GHz band.

CBRS sits in the 3.55-3.7 MHz and uses a tiered licensing system, with coastal Navy radars getting priority over commercial users who paid for a priority license, and those users in turn getting priority over those using the airwaves on a free, general access basis. It’s used by rural wireless broadband providers, cable companies for mobile service, and other companies as part of private networks.

The Defense plan would see 100 megahertz of that being auctioned, similar to a plan proposed last year by AT&T that would involve moving users elsewhere in order to auction off the band for exclusive use.

“The key element to free up spectrum comes not from the DoD moving its equipment to another band but to materially change the CBRS operations which have particularly benefited cable’s wireless efforts,” Blair Levin, New Street’s policy advisor and former FCC chief of staff, wrote in a research note.

In all, the proposal would see the military vacate 320 megahertz, including some in the 7 GHz band, and require the FCC to auction 320 megahertz, including 220 megahertz in the upper C-band, where the agency is already taking input on increasing utilization. 

Levin wrote he thinks it’s unlikely the DoD plan will be represented in the reconciliation bill. If the FCC did move on a similarly disruptive plan for CBRS, he said the cable industry would likely sue to block it and tie the effort up for years.

Indeed, the industry was not pleased with the Defense plan.

“A spectrum proposal claiming to protect some government spectrum bands by helping Big Mobile kill off wireless competition is a bad deal for American consumers,” NCTA – The Internet & Television Association, which represents cable companies like Charter and Comcast, said in a statement. “As we develop spectrum policies that protect national security and support wireless growth, we must reject false ‘solutions’ that cave to unreasonable carrier demands at the expense of fair, competitive access essential to millions of consumers and businesses.” 

David Zumwalt, CEO of WISPA, which represents small, wireless broadband providers, said his members were concerned about the prospect of vacating the band. 

“It has our members very concerned and very upset because they’ve made long-term deployments,” he said. “It’d be a heavy lift to go in and move all that, and at some point the cost of moving outweighs the revenue benefit.”

DoD and CTIA, the main 5G trade group, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.