BEAD Bets Big on CBRS and 6 GHz Bands, So Why Is Congress Gutting Them?

Jessica Dine, policy analyst at New America’s Open Technology Institute and Wireless Future, co-wrote a Light Reading op-ed with Nat Purser, Government Affairs Policy Advocate at Public Knowledge, on the U.S. government’s increasingly inconsistent approach to broadband policy, with a particular focus on the potential impacts of the incongruence between:

• The changes that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently announced to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD), including the rerouting of billions of dollars from fiber networks to unlicensed fixed wireless (ULFW).
• The changes that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) recently announced to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s portion of the budget reconciliation bill, including the removal of language that would protect the 6 GHz and Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) bands—both of which ULFW providers rely upon, especially for serving rural communities—from being reallocated to mobile cellular carriers in spectrum auctions.

As our digital demands grow, we need more spectrum and more efficient use to accommodate our rapidly increasing appetite for wireless data. If certain lanes shut down, existing users lose access and a path for growth. That’s the threat facing the 6GHz and CBRS bands.

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Auctioning the 6GHz band or CBRS for exclusive mobile use would dismantle the very model that makes it so useful. It would also set a dangerous precedent: not only households, but also companies making massive investments to deliver service can be forced out if the political or commercial winds change.

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The BEAD program will not connect every last American if it’s built on an unstable foundation. Businesses and communities that depend on these bands deserve certainty that this spectrum won’t be wrenched out from underneath them. Congress must protect the CBRS and 6GHz bands from being auctioned off for a shortsighted, one-time revenue boost – our digital future relies on nothing less.