For Immediate Release
May 8, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
Washington, D.C. – Spectrum for the Future, a diverse coalition of innovators, anchor institutions, and technology companies, today released a new report on U.S. spectrum management, “A Playbook to Secure the Future for Continued U.S. Wireless Leadership on the Global Stage.” The report, authored by industry veteran Jennifer M. McCarthy, illuminates why the U.S should toss outdated policies that prioritize exclusively licensed spectrum championed by the Big Three cellular carriers. Additionally, the report outlines a roadmap for accelerating U.S. leadership by leveraging shared and unlicensed technologies.
“Today’s report illustrates why the U.S. must lean into our competitive advantage in shared and unlicensed technologies, like CBRS and Wi-Fi, instead of devoting taxpayer resources to corporate special interests,” said Tamara Smith, spokesperson for Spectrum for the Future. “These technologies unlock competition among wireless users, delivering lower prices for consumers, greater connectivity, and hundreds of billions of dollars in economic activity.”
Among other findings, the report notes that spectrum is a finite resource that needs to be managed efficiently using state-of-the-art, automated tools and techniques – capabilities developed in America by U.S. technology leaders. This America First approach will make spectrum available for manufacturing, defense, automotive, agriculture, energy, retail, commercial real estate, communications, media, and supply chain industries, as well as schools, libraries, and civil society groups.
“Spectrum policies should strive to increase the number of users that can access a band through advanced tools developed in the U.S. that can ensure both our government and our industrial base have sufficient access to spectrum to meet their communications needs,” writes McCarthy.
In addition to dynamic sharing, the report also notes that the U.S. is the leader in unlicensed technology, like Wi-Fi, which carries 85% of the world’s internet traffic, including 90% of consumer mobile traffic.
“And, unlike licensed technologies, such as 5G, which are currently dominated internationally by Chinese manufacturers (Huawei and ZTE), unlicensed Wi-Fi is dominated by American manufacturers. Wi-Fi chipset manufacturing is led by U.S. companies, including Qualcomm, Broadcom, Intel, and Texas Instruments, while Cisco, HPE Aruba, Extreme Networks, and Ruckus, are leading U.S. Wi-Fi equipment vendors,” notes McCarthy.