Industry and Tribes at Odds on Tribal Priority Window

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2025 – The wireless industry and Tribal governments are at odds over whether Tribes should be given a chance to apply for free spectrum licenses in an upcoming Federal Communications Commission auction.

The agency is set to sell off 200 licenses in the AWS-3 band sometime before June 2026, a move authorized by Congress to help pay for a reimbursement program for smaller providers swapping gear from blacklisted Chinese providers out of their networks. 

In February the FCC asked for input on whether to include a Tribal priority window, in which tribes and Tribal ISPs could apply for the rights to deploy airwaves. Tribal lands are usually less economical to serve than denser areas and tend to lag behind the rest of the country in connectivity.

“A Tribal window would slow down the auction of this valuable spectrum, which has already been sitting in the Commission’s inventory unused for far too long,” CTIA, the major 5G trade group, wrote in a Monday filing with the agency. 

A Tribal priority window “will raise less money” and “could ultimately drive down interest in the auction by injecting uncertainty around the license inventory and spectrum rights being offered,” CTIA added.

The National Congress of American Indians, which represents Tribal governments across the country, along with other Tribal organizations and consumer groups, called for the agency to adopt a Tribal priority window for the auction.

“Indeed, given that carriers have historically displayed little or no interest in serving Tribal lands, the removal of Tribal lands from the area of service may even improve the value of the remainder of the licenses,” the groups wrote.

They pointed to the six-month Tribal window in the 2.5 GHz auction in 2020, which they said was successful in connecting historically unserved Tribal lands. More than 360 Tribal governments secured the rights to use airwaves in the band, according to FCC data. The window was administered under former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who now serves as CEO of CTIA.

The groups cited an Institute for Local Self-Reliance analysis that found at least 176 Tribal areas would overlap with soon-to-be auctioned AWS-3 license areas.

The Navajo Nation said in a separate filing that it had entered into leases with two carriers to deploy its 2.5 GHz spectrum, and estimated the network now covers nearly 80 percent of its population. The tribe said that while AWS-3 offered more modest bandwidth than 2.5 GHz, the extra spectrum would still expand the areas within its borders where remote work, school, and healthcare would be possible.

The 2.5 GHz spectrum “is quickly becoming a vital asset in the Navajo Nation’s goal of closing the digital divide,” the tribe wrote. “The AWS-3 spectrum shows similar promise for wireless broadband services on the Navajo Nation.”

Tribes and the carriers also disagreed on whether a Tribal window was legal, with CTIA arguing the law allowing the AWS-3 auction and even the Communications Act don’t give the agency discretion to allow Tribes first dibs ahead of an auction. The Tribal and consumer groups argued the move was within bounds of the FCC’s authority to administer auctions as it sees fit.