On June 7, the Center for Strategic & International Studies released a report titled "Spectrum Allocation for a Contest with China." Authored by James Andrew Lewis, the report emphasizes the need for allocation of more mid-band spectrum to support commercial 5G services.
The report argues that American success in competition with China and global influence depends on the U.S. staying at the cutting edge of technology. This includes 5G wireless technologies; "[b]ut the United States lags far behind the rest of the world in allocations of the spectrum needed for 5G." The report states that federal government agencies have been allocated 60% of the mid-band spectrum compared to only 5% for licensed commercial users. Thus, "U.S. mid-band allocations diverge from the practices of other leading economies, including China, all of which have allocated much more mid-band spectrum to 5G uses."
Also, the report acknowledges that the expiration of the FCC's spectrum license auction authority in March of this year "deprives the United States of a valuable spectrum management tool and makes it more difficult to align spectrum use to make the country more competitive with China." And it rightly calls for the U.S. to find ways to allocate sufficient spectrum for 5G while supporting other national security objectives.
Free State Foundation Senior Fellow Andrew Long also wrote about these same important topics in his February 2023 Perspectives from FSF Scholars, "Extending FCC Spectrum Auction Authority Is Essential to the 5G Race."
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