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.

Two other parties have different plans for the band. The big mobile carriers would like to buy exclusive rights to the spectrum at auction to beef up their network capacity, and Elon Musk’s Starlink has asked the agency to open the band up for direct-to-device satellite service. 

Analysts expect some spectrum is sure to go to the carriers – who are also expecting as much – given that the adjacent C-Band has already deployed for 5G and Carr has historically been sympathetic to the industry’s desire for more spectrum. But Carr is also an ally of Musk, who’s gained a huge amount of power since President Donald Trump’s election. The billionaire is spearheading the Trump administration effort to cancel spending and push out swathes of career government workers. 

Power levels for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service

WISPA reiterated its position that the FCC should not increase power levels for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service. The agency took comment last year on a wide array of updates to its rules for the sharing system. Some of the group’s members use shared CBRS spectrum to provide broadband, and WISPA warned higher power could cause unworkable interference.

“The FCC should conclude this proceeding by the end of 2025, with the priority of promoting the success of the CBRS band,” WISPA wrote, by which it meant the agency should “reject calls by some companies to substantially increase the power levels for [CBRS devices] or substantially change the out-of-band emission levels.”

The mobile carriers generally dislike the CBRS framework, preferring the high-power, exclusive licenses that 5G networks are built on, and have argued the band is underused. CBRS is just one front in an intensifying dispute between the carriers and sharing proponents over how best to allocate finite airwaves.

10-10.5 GigaHertz

Along with Cambium Networks, New America’s Open Technology Institute, and Public Knowledge, WISPA had asked the FCC in 2022 to take input on opening the 10 GigaHertz (GHz) band for shared use with a frequency coordination system to prevent interference – it’s occupied by government and amateur users currently. 

The agency has yet to seek comment on the proposal, though, and WISPA said its members could still use the band to transfer data between local wireless networks and the wired internet backbone. 

“This is especially true in rural areas and for other applications where devices are not proximate to available or affordable fiber,” the group wrote.

NextNav

Last year, geolocation company NextNav proposed the FCC reorganize the 900 MHz band to allow the company to operate a nationwide GPS supplement that NextNav said would serve as a necessary backup and improve accuracy, plus open the door for it to provide 5G broadband. WISPA was among the many parties that opposed the plan – the band has federal incumbents and several unlicensed user bases – and its position hasn’t changed.

“Many of WISPA’s ISP members use the band to provide broadband services to tens of thousands of customers in heavily forested areas,” the group wrote.

The group also pushed for sharing in the 12.2-12.7 GigaHertz and 12.7-13.25 GHz bands, an order permitting the use of 5.9 GHz band for fixed wireless broadband, and said it was ready to assist the agency in finalizing rules for the 37 GHz band, which a government report found could be shared with commercial users.