NTIA appears to be putting the finishing touches on its Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, with a meeting expected as early as June, industry officials told us. But NTIA reportedly hasn’t notified members that they have been selected to participate.

CTIA is hopeful a legislative vehicle will be found soon that will restore general FCC auction authority, more than a year after it lapsed, CTIA Senior Vice President-Spectrum Umair Javed said Wednesday during a Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy webcast. “It sort of feels like there’s a lot of smoke, and maybe not fire yet,” Javed said. He hopes a bill floated by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, will provide the needed “spark.”

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she hopes to soon file legislation on a five-year renewal of the FCC’s lapsed spectrum auction authority without language authorizing sales of specific bands, despite Republican criticism during a Thursday hearing about omitting an airwaves pipeline. Senate Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., emphasized their 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act (S-3909) as an antidote to concerns about the Biden spectrum strategy, as expected (see 2403200001). The hearing also revealed clear divisions among panel Republicans about continuing to explore 5G use of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, which has drawn opposition from DOD and top Capitol Hill allies (see 2403200061).

Two retired senior military officials on Wednesday urged collaboration between the wireless industry and the DOD on opening the lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands for licensed use. While the U.S. “has been the established global leader in wireless, a new technology superpower -- China -- is emerging with astonishing speed,” said Mike Rogers, a retired U.S. Navy admiral and former director of the National Security Agency, and Bruce Crawford, retired lieutenant general and former Army chief information officer. “Both our military and commercial sectors need access to spectrum -- but today our national spectrum policies are struggling to keep up with critical needs,” they said in a Stars and Stripes essay. The lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands align “with our allies around the globe and should be our priority,” they added. “We should explore all opportunities for full-power commercial access to these bands while ensuring that the needs of federal missions are fully met.” In addition, DOD needs clear direction and a schedule of auctions from the FCC, Rogers and Crawford wrote: “Too often our military is forced to respond to band-by-band spectrum access requests without any global view of the policy objective or insight into when or where the next request will be received. That is not how the military works.”

A CTIA executive on Wednesday criticized DOD’s work so far on the potential clearing of parts of the lower 3 GHz band. “We need more spectrum to meet commercial demand” and the federal government holds the most spectrum, said CTIA Senior Vice President-Spectrum Umair Javed during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar on Wednesday. Other panelists praised the Biden administration for releasing a national spectrum strategy (see 2403120006). The strategy includes a co-led NTIA and DOD study of the lower 3 GHz band.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us she's considering a clean FCC reauthorization bill that could pay for some of congressional leaders’ telecom priorities but wouldn’t necessarily mandate that the commission begin sales of specific frequencies. Senate Commerce plans a March 21 hearing on that and other spectrum policy issues, Cantwell told us Thursday ahead of a formal panel announcement. Cantwell's proposal would be in line with her pursuit of a slimmed-down measure (see 2403110066) drawing some elements of the stalled House Commerce Committee-cleared Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565).

NTIA Tuesday released its implementation plan for the national spectrum strategy. Under the plan, studies for the 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands, top priorities of wireless carriers, will begin this month and be completed in October 2026 (see 2403120006). FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr criticized the plan, saying in “the best case” the lower 3 and 7/8 GHz bands won’t be available until 2028. Others had a more positive take.

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., filed their long-circulating 2024 Spectrum Pipeline Act Monday with some changes from a draft version proposed in the fall (see 2311220063). The proposal drew sharply divided reactions from communications policy stakeholders. Some lobbyists suggested Cruz and Thune filed the measure Monday to get ahead of NTIA's planned release later this week of its implementation plan for the Biden administration's national spectrum strategy (see 2403050048).

NTIA has released the implementation plan for the national spectrum strategy. Under the plan, released today, studies for the lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands -- top priorities of wireless carriers -- are due to start this month and be completed in October 2026. They would be the last of the bands to see completed studies. A final report on 37.0-37.6 GHz will be due this November and should be the first to be completed.

Wi-Fi advocates strongly opposed a December request from Axon Enterprise for a waiver allowing it to market three investigation and surveillance devices to law enforcement agencies. These devices would operate at higher power levels than allowed under FCC rules in heavily used 5 GHz spectrum. The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment in February (see 2402060082). Oppositions were posted on Friday in docket 24-40. Axon didn’t comment Friday.