Proponents Still Pushing for Tribal Licensing Window in Upcoming Auction
A draft version of the FCC's rules for the AWS-3 auction would not include one.
WASHINGTON, July 16, 2025 – Supporters of a Tribal licensing window are asking the Federal Communications Commission to include one in the rules for its upcoming spectrum auction. The agency said in a draft version of the rules it didn’t plan on instituting one.
Such a window would allow Tribal governments and ISPs to apply for free licenses before the auction started. The FCC held one before its 2.5 GigaHertz auction in 2020 during the first Trump administration.
The agency said in part that a window would violate the Communications Act by impeding bidders’ ability to plan, a finding Public Knowledge said it strongly disputed. The FCC is set to vote on the rules at its July 24 meeting.
“There is scant evidence in the record that removal of lands that winning bidders generally do not wish to serve meaningfully impacts bidding plans, and this finding is inconsistent with the Commission’s previous statement that it would not reach broader questions and that it would limit its determinations to this specific auction,” the group wrote in ex parte filings posted Wednesday. The finding “would needlessly tie the hands of the Commission going forward when considering other auctions that do not have the unique features of this auction.”
Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld and other representatives met with staff from the offices of FCC Commissioners Olivia Trusty and Anna Gomez on Friday and staff from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s office on Monday to discuss the draft.
Tribes and consumer advocates were successful in getting the agency to ask for input on a Tribal priority window when it proposed rules for the upcoming AWS-3 auction, and as part of a separate inquiry about the upper C-band. They said the measure would help ensure airwaves would be deployed for critical services on Tribal lands, which are more sparsely populated and tend to have worse broadband access.
The wireless carriers opposed the move, saying it would delay the auction and that the separate law approving the AWS-3 auction – a means of raising money to reimburse small ISPs for ripping blacklisted Chinese gear out of their networks – did not allow for anything other than a competitive bidding process for each license.
The draft order sided with CTIA, the 5G industry trade group, on both fronts. CTIA CEO Ajit Pai, who as FCC Chairman oversaw the 2.5 GHz Tribal licensing window, and others from the group met with Trusty Thursday to express support for the “swift adoption of final procedures” for the AWS-3 auction, but the ex parte filing didn’t mention the Tribal window.
The group filed a separate letter Monday saying the agency was correct to find a Tribal window violated the Communications Act.
The draft also said the agency’s experience with the 2.5 GHz auction suggested it would take a lot of time and energy to conduct the necessary outreach for participants, a concern Public Knowledge tried to address.
“Now that Tribes are familiar with the application and window processing process, there is no need to conclude that any outreach and training for Tribes will be necessary over and above what the Commission does for licensees,” the group wrote.
Public Knowledge said it conceded there would be some work involved to create Tribal licenses, as some licenses only partially cover Tribal lands. But it said the work was similar to that done to exclude Tribal lands too close to urban centers from the 2.5 GHz priority window and that it wouldn’t “unduly delay the auction.”
The FCC’s general spectrum auction authority was restored July 4, but Congress had late last year approved a one-off reauction of 200 AWS-3 licenses, almost all of which Dish had previously returned to the agency.
Mobile carriers use the spectrum for their 5G networks, with the most valuable of the available licenses covering Boston, Chicago, and New York City. The FCC must start the auction by June 23, 2026.
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