WISPA Wants Spectrum Sharing from FCC Under Carr

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2025 – The trade group representing small and wireless broadband providers wants the new Federal Communications Commission chairman to be open to spectrum sharing arrangements. WISPA outlined its spectrum policy priorities in a Thursday meeting with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s senior counsel.

WISPA said in an ex parte filing it approved of two draft items up for a vote at the FCC’s Feb. 17 meeting: proposed rules for auctioning off licenses in the AWS-3 band used by mobile carriers, and an inquiry into repurposing the upper C-Band.

With respect to the latter, the group wrote that “spectrum sharing may be possible in the band and may be deployable at lower power and more expeditiously in light of the proximity of the band to radio altimeters” – aircraft sensors use airwaves just above the upper C-Band.