Various efforts in the US from both sides of the political aisle to free up more mobile spectrum have gone down well in some quarters, but not so well in others.
Shortly after the ink dried on various statements decrying the first anniversary of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC)'s inability to auction spectrum, a group of Republican senators led by Ted Cruz introduced a bill to restore it.
The Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2024 seeks to reauthorise the watchdog to allocate spectrum, and orders it to identify no less than 2,500 MHz of spectrum between 1.3 GHz and 13.2 GHz that can be freed up for commercial purposes. It proposes that 1,250 MHz of that total be made available for licensed use, and it wants these frequencies to be identified no later than two years after the act passes – if indeed it does.
The bill is as ambitious as it is well timed, and unsurprisingly it went down well with US mobile operators.
