Statement on CSMAC’s Report Affirming the Shared, Local Licensing Framework in CBRS

Today, the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) issued a report affirming the value of the shared, local licensing framework in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). Staffed by spectrum policy experts from outside the government and serving in their personal capacity, the CSMAC advises the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on spectrum policy issues. In particular, the report issued today notes the unique opportunities that the CBRS model provides to various important use cases, while also protecting mission-critical national security functions.

In response to CSMAC approving the report, Spectrum for the Future the following statement:

“With this report, CSMAC affirms much of what Spectrum for the Future and its members have been saying: Shared, local licensing presents varied opportunities for American innovation.  CBRS supports opportunity all across the country today, whether it’s powering wireless competition that brings lower prices for consumers, supercharging American manufacturing, ensuring educational resources can meet students where they are, or connecting rural America to broadband service. What’s more, CBRS does this while coexisting with important government uses of the spectrum, all to the benefit of the American public.

“As the NTIA kicks off the new year by studying the possibilities of improved sharing in the lower 3 GHz band—as teed up in the National Spectrum Strategy—today’s report will advise the NTIA well. Shared, local licensing frameworks operating at power levels comparable to CBRS promote the bottom-up innovation that America was built on, a type of innovation that our global economic competitors like the People’s Republic of China cannot match. We look forward to models like CBRS continuing to be leveraged to ensure U.S. innovation and global leadership in 5G and 6G technologies.”

ABOUT US: Spectrum for the Future represents a diverse coalition of innovators, anchor institutions, and technology companies who agree that an inclusive approach to wireless spectrum policy is essential to America’s future technology leadership, industrial might, and global competitiveness.