Importance of Trump's 6G Memo Remains Unclear
Industry officials continue weighing the net effect of Friday night's presidential memo on spectrum for full-power licensed use, though its overall importance appears to remain unclear. Federal agencies have already started lining up funding to do various band studies, as directed by the reconciliation package's goal of finding 800 MHz of midband spectrum for 6G, industry and federal officials said. The studies must gain approval as part of the spectrum relocation fund process by a technical panel made up of OMB, the FCC and NTIA.
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The presidential memo put the most attention on the 7.125-7.4 GHz band, directing NTIA to immediately work on moving federal incumbents from the band, which has been a focus of carriers (see 2512190086). It also called out spectrum at 2.69-2.9 and 4.4-4.94 GHz, two other bands identified by Congress in the reconciliation package.
In addition, President Donald Trump's order directed the administration to work with industry on agenda item 1.7 at the next World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027, which examines studies on sharing and compatibility and on international mobile telecommunications in the 4, 7/8 and 15 GHz bands (see 2504150032).
Patrick Halley, CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association, said in a statement Monday that Trump’s actions “combine scale with speed to help deliver large, contiguous blocks of mid-band spectrum to form the backbone of America’s next-generation wireless fabric.” CTIA praised the memo Friday.
Wireless groups were quick to applaud Trump's moves, New Street’s Blair Levin said Monday. “We recognize that in today’s DC, praise for Trump is table stakes but as far as we can tell, everything positive for exclusive wireless in the Memoranda” was already in the reconciliation package and “NTIA had signaled was already underway.”
Levin told investors that one of the most important parts of the memo is that it doesn’t mention the citizens broadband radio service band, the topic of a recurring fight before the FCC (see 2512150026). Cable operators were also hoping the 7.125-7.25 MHz band would be preserved for next-generation Wi-Fi, he noted. The memo is “largely a replay of the ongoing efforts to create a spectrum pipeline but does provide further confirmation, by omission, that the threat to CBRS is unlikely to be realized.”
The reconciliation bill had ambitious targets, “but it's important for the FCC and other federal agencies to be aggressive in meeting them,” said Joe Kane, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation's director of broadband and spectrum policy. Trump's order is “a good sign that there is White House-level support for action on certain bands.” Tamping down “potential obstruction and foot-dragging by incumbents” should move the process along, he added.
Former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday that it remains “incredibly murky” what 6G will look like and what bands will predominantly be used. But the memo “solidifies work already in place over which bands the federal government will use to meet” the goal of finding federal frequencies for carrier use, he said. Moving forward will “require heavy lifting, from identification to execution,” because of DOD opposition, “but this does seem to reduce pressure on other hotly discussed bands."
The memo is “a potential window into the administration's thinking on WRC,” emailed Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. By focusing studies on certain bands next year, the administration “will be in a stronger place for both the regional negotiations leading to WRC-27 and WRC-27 itself,” he said. “Whenever the auctions happen, the administration is signaling that these are the bands where the U.S. will focus its energy.”
Feld also said the memo pushes back against AT&T, CTIA and the EU on International Mobile Telecommunications in the CBRS band and against the EU on licensed wireless in the 6 GHz band. It sends a message that “CTIA and the wireless industry should focus on these bands as next in the pipeline and therefore start thinking about developing global standards for these bands, not CBRS or 6 GHz.”