NTIA to Release 7 GHz Study at Dec. 10 Event in Washington
NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said she supported other countries updating power limit rules for low-Earth orbit satellites
WASHINGTON, Nov. 3, 2026 – The Trump administration is set to release its study on clearing 275 megahertz of government spectrum next month.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration is hosting a spectrum policy symposium on Dec. 10 at the National Press Club in Washington, the agency’s top official said Tuesday.
At the symposium, NTIA will release its study on the 7.125-7.4 GigaHertz (GHz) band, currently used for defense purposes, according to NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth.
“At the symposium, we will release our 7 GHz report, including how much spectrum we believe can be made available for commercial use, timelines for access to the band, and the costs associated with relocating current federal users,” Roth said. “Once that report is released, we hope the FCC will move quickly to launch a rulemaking for a 7 GHz auction so we can bring this important block of mid-band spectrum to market as quickly as possible.”
Roth spoke to diplomats and other stakeholders at a Meridian International Center event on next year’s World Radiocommunication Conference. The agency posted her remarks online.
NTIA started the lower 7 GHz study process under the Biden administration. The White House said in December 2025 it wanted NTIA to ultimately identify the band for 6G use by the end of 2026.
Roth said the agency hoped to finish another spectrum study, on the 1675-1695 MHz band, “in the coming months.” NTIA is also studying the 4 GHz and 2.7 GHz bands to gauge their usability for the private sector.
NTIA has already told the Federal Communications Commission that the U.S. should push for mobile use in the lower 7 Ghz band at WRC, where the issue will be taken up by telecom regulators from around the world.
WRC-27
The FCC is looking to have positions ironed out by the end of this month, when regulators from North and South America will next meet to hammer out agreements ahead of WRC.
Roth said the U.S. was on track to head to that meeting with a finalized position on 19 of its most important agenda items.
Terrestrial stakeholders have disagreed on whether push for mobile use in 7 GHz and 4 Ghz — wireless carriers want this and some spectrum sharing proponents and tech companies would rather demur — but most of WRC’s items are space-related.
Roth said Tuesday the U.S. wanted other countries to modernize power limit rules for low-Earth orbit satellites. The FCC unilaterally deviated from the international rules earlier this year, arguing that in trying to avoid interference with geostationary satellite systems, global rules set in the 90s were too restrictive to LEOs.
“Since modernizing satellite power limits domestically, the United States has seen significant increases in NGSO [LEO] capacity — without claims of interference from the geostationary operators — helping move us closer to gigabit speeds from space,” Roth said.
There’s no formal agenda item at WRC-27 on the issue, but some Washington think tanks want the U.S. delegation to push on the issue given its importance for American companies. SpaceX dominates the LEO market, launching more mass into orbit last year than the entire rest of the world combined, and other companies like Amazon are looking to launch their own constellations.
Roth said NTIA made its case on the issue at training sessions it held with regulators from developing countries this year.
