Tribes, Industry Still Disagree on Auction Priority Window

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2025 – Tribal governments and the 5G industry are still at odds over whether an upcoming spectrum auction should include a window for tribes to apply for free licenses.

The Federal Communications Commission is set to begin selling off 200 licenses in the AWS-3 band sometime before June 23, 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 agency 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.

Tribes and consumer advocacy groups have urged the agency in favor of a Tribal window, arguing the one opened before the previous 2.5 GigaHertz auction was successful and that many Tribal lands overlap with AWS-3 license areas. CTIA, the major wireless trade group, opposed one on the grounds it was outside the agency’s authority and would gum up the auction.

“A Tribal licensing window would delay the auction of this valuable spectrum and may ultimately drive down interest in the auction by injecting uncertainty around the license inventory and spectrum rights being offered,” CTIA wrote in reply comments Tuesday. “This may jeopardize bidders’ ability to plan an auction strategy and is likely to reduce auction revenues and risk missing the Congressional deadline to conduct the auction.”

The Communications Act allows the FCC to deviate from competitive bidding when licensee applications would be mutually exclusive, if it serves the public interest. CTIA argued the delay caused by a Tribal window would put it on the wrong side of that standard, both in this case and generally.

The National Congress of American Indians, which represents Tribal governments, and other Tribal organizations and consumer groups called the argument “rather shocking” given the “grassroots reality of the lack of robust wireless services on Tribal lands.”

A Tribal window would “serve the public interest and further the Commission’s specific policy under its federal trust and treaty responsibilities to enhance Tribal spectrum access, as well as its general policy to ensure connectivity in rural, unserved and underserved areas like the Navajo Nation,” the Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission wrote.

The NNTRC had said in a previous filing that the AWS-3 spectrum, along with 2.5 GHz airwaves the Navajo Nation obtained in the last Tribal window, would expand broadband access within its borders.

The 2.5 GHz auction in 2020 had a seven-month Tribal window and saw more than 360 Tribal entities secure licenses. It was administered under FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who took over as CEO of CTIA this month.