Proposed Wireless Spectrum Auction Would Crush Innovation, Industry Claims in Letter to Lawmakers

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America's Open Technology Institute, is quoted in a StateScoop article about the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association's letter to two senators regarding concerns about proposed changes to shared spectrum in the president’s budget bill.

"The WISPA letter is 'very significant,' but not surprising given that hundreds of local and mainly rural ISPs rely on free access to CBRS spectrum to provide access to fixed wireless internet service."

"The auction would also create issues with the military’s access to spectrum, as CBRS includes agreements allowing a variety of users — including ISPs and the DoD — to use the bandwidth without interference from one another."

“Rural broadband providers and enterprise private 5G wireless operators depend heavily on the band...Cruz is carrying water for the big three mobile carriers, which wants to clear more than 1,000 current local operators off CBRS to auction it. The problem is that the military radar spectrum is the only band where CBRS could move, something the Department of Defense and his fellow Republicans are opposing.”