Evan Swarztrauber: House Should Restore 6 GigaHertz Protections in Budget Bill
The FCC concluded that an auction of the 6 GHz band would be unwise, as it would require costly relocation of services
Evan Swarztrauber
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which means the House of Representatives could have the final word. The Senate version of the legislation requires a pipeline of 800 megahertz of spectrum for future auctions—500 of which must come from spectrum used exclusively by government users.
Congress should be commended for its work to free up more spectrum for commercial use. But the House could make this bill even more beautiful by restoring protections for the 6 GigaHertz (GHz) band (5925-7125 MHz) that were wisely included in the chamber’s initial version.
It appears that, despite stripping those protections, the Senate has no obvious intent to promote an auction of the 6 GHz band—and for good reason. In 2020, the Federal Communications Commission, under then-Chairman Ajit Pai, made a bold decision to open the entire band to unlicensed use, which is boosting Wi-Fi across the U.S.
Nearly 100 million North American devices are 6 GHz-enabled, and the Wi-Fi ecosystem generates hundreds of billions in U.S. consumer benefit and millions of American jobs. If Congress wants to avoid disrupting or undermining that investment, there is no good reason not to protect the band from future auction by simply restoring the House’s language in the OBBB.
Further, the FCC concluded in 2020 that an auction of the 6 GHz band would be unwise, as it would require costly relocation of services. While those incumbents can co-exist with low-power Wi-Fi devices that are mostly used indoors in dense areas, they would suffer interference from the higher-power use cases envisioned with licensing the band.
Leaving the 6 GHz band vulnerable to auction would also undermine the Trump Administration’s goal of closing the digital divide in a cost-efficient way. Rural providers are using 6 GHz to bridge coverage gaps in areas largely unserved by larger Internet Service Providers.
And thanks to recent changes in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, areas served by unlicensed fixed wireless are no longer considered “unserved.” According to a study, this could lead to $10-25 billion in savings for taxpayers and make the BEAD program more efficient by targeting its financial and administrative resources toward areas that truly lack viable broadband service.
However, rural wireless providers need to know that the 6 GHz band will be available to continue expanding and upgrading coverage. If the band is auctioned, or even vulnerable to change, it will disincentivize those providers from investing in 6 GHz equipment until they can get some assurance from Washington that their investments won’t be rendered worthless by shifting policies. Moreover, undermining a key tool for rural broadband could complicate the potential cost savings of BEAD—and worse, leave some families on the wrong side of the digital divide.
Regardless of Congress’s intent, a failure to exclude the band creates needless uncertainty for the U.S. companies investing billions of dollars in 6 GHz-enabled devices, including in advanced networking equipment, extended reality, robotics, precision agriculture, and robotics.
Uncertainty is bad enough for business, but a future auction of the band would be devastating to these businesses and the consumers benefitting from that investment. It would also set a terrible precedent for future spectrum policy—that policymakers in search of revenue can cripple a growing ecosystem overnight. It would also send a message to all stakeholders in the technology and telecommunications sectors, both here and abroad, that United States spectrum decisions cannot be relied on—even in the short term.
While the temptation to leave the door open may be understandable, American spectrum policy should strive for consistency rather than unpredictability. Importantly, the FCC has ongoing proceedings to help fulfill the bill’s spectrum auction requirements without cannibalizing 6 GHz, meaning legislators can protect the band without worrying about meeting the 800 megahertz target.
The FCC got it right in 2020, and Congress can protect and enhance the fruits of that decision by explicitly protecting the 6 GHz band from auction. Policymakers should always endeavor to do no harm. When it comes to 6 GHz, it can’t hurt to put that on paper.
Evan Swarztrauber is a non-resident senior fellow on broadband and telecom policy at the Foundation for American Innovation, where he hosts The Dynamist podcast. He is also Principal and Founder at CorePoint Strategies, a technology and telecommunications policy consulting firm. Previously, he served at the Federal Communications Commission as a policy advisor to Chairman Ajit Pai and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.
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