WISPA Wants CBRS Protection in Massive Reconciliation Bill
The Defense Department and AT&T have proposed auctioning off at least some of the shared band.
Jake Neenan
WASHINGTON, May 23, 2025 – The trade group representing small, wireless broadband providers has “strong concerns” about the spectrum language in the budget reconciliation bill passed by the House on Thursday by one vote.
“The House bill does not exclude the widely used and previously auctioned Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band from competitive bidding, leaving it vulnerable to sale and/or major disruption,” WISPA CEO David Zumwalt said in a statement.
The House included language in its budget bill that would restore the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction spectrum that expired in March 2023. It also included a mandate to sell off at least 600 megahertz for exclusively licensed mobile broadband, a pipeline for the 5G carriers that they have been pushing hard to get included in the bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the measure would raise $88 billion over ten years.
The bill would exclude the military’s lower 3 GHz band – long eyed by the mobile carriers – and the unlicensed 5.9 GHz and 6 GHz bands from counting toward that pipeline total. Zumwalt said he was encouraged by that, as WISPA members use the unlicensed bands to provide broadband, but he wanted more protection for CBRS.
“As the bill moves to the Senate, WISPA urges that legislative body to protect from auction the CBRS, 5.9 GHz and 6 GHz bands, and to consider the profound benefits of a balanced spectrum policy which enables a mix of unlicensed, shared and exclusive-use spectrum,” Zumwalt said.
The shared CBRS band uses a tiered licensing system, where companies that purchased priority licenses get priority over those using the airwaves on a free, general access basis. Coastal Navy radars get top priority.
The Defense Department circulated a compromise plan earlier this year that would protect its lower 3 GHz band and others – although only the lower 3 made it into the House bill – while moving some CBRS users and auctioning the spectrum off for exclusive use. It was similar to an AT&T proposal from last fall.
That would be a problem for WISPA, Zumwalt said, as more than 60 percent of its members use CBRS spectrum for broadband service. He warned re-auctioning in the band could strand their investments in equipment.
The carriers, opposed to sharing models generally, have argued CBRS was underused, a characterization Zumwalt and other proponents have long disputed.
“The diversity of the use cases is vast,” he said. “It is in industrial IoT applications. Agri-tech. Private enterprise networks. Hospitals. Airports. Schools. Churches. The NFL. Urban Multi-Dwelling Units. Law enforcement agencies, public safety institutions and first responders.”
Zumwalt also noted the exclusions for the lower 3 GHz, 5.9 GHz, and 6 GHz bands only exclude them from counting toward the bill’s 600 megahertz target – they wouldn’t actually block the FCC from selling them off if the agency wanted. There haven’t been pushes from carriers to alter the unlicensed 5.9 GHz and 6 GHz bands.
In the Senate, lawmakers have sought to both get more airwaves in the hands of the major mobile carriers and do more to protect military spectrum than the House bill – goals that are opposed to each other.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced a bill last Congress with Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., that would have required the FCC to make available 1,250 megahertz of licensed spectrum, more than double the House bill. Cruz has been a vocal advocate for a pipeline of some kind in the reconciliation bill, something lawmakers aligned with the DoD have generally pushed back on.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on Cruz’s committee, blasted the House bill earlier this week, citing national security concerns.
“National Security and Defense Republicans and Democrats were adamant last year that DoD spectrum couldn’t be given away because of the national security implications,” she said in a statement. “The House plan to sell 600 MHz of spectrum would punch a gaping hole in our defenses.”
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., of the Armed Services Committee, said at the Politico Security Summit last week that she “personally could not accept” the House bill as-is. She said she also wanted language that did more to prevent any kind of auction in certain military bands.
Cruz called the House language “encouraging” in a statement and said it “reflects the momentum we’ve been building” to establish a pipeline
