For Immediate Release

August 22, 2025

Contact: [email protected]

In case you missed it – Dean Bubley, the founder and director of Disruptive Analysis, recently published a new column in Fierce Network warning investors to be wary of massive spending on spectrum auctions under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

“Investors need to be concerned that the OBBBA aims to extract huge sums from the mobile industry in spectrum auctions, despite a lack of evidence of future return. Telecom operators may overpay for new spectrum assets that prove to be less valuable than anticipated,” wrote Bubley. “Investors should reward companies whose executives focus on stretching existing spectrum assets via technology upgrades, and offer realistic demand forecasts and address congestion by selective local licenses or partnership arrangements. They should be wary of those who intend to repeat the debt-fueled spectrum land-grab of the past.”

As the founder and director of Disruptive Analysis, Bubley has been advising and speaking in the telecom industry on a variety of topics, including spectrum, for more than 25 years.

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Investors Should Be Wary Of A “Spectrum Pipeline”

Fierce Network

Dean Bubley, Founder of Disruptive Analysis

August 22, 2025

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed Congress and was signed into law on July 4, 2025. The spectrum auction section of the OBBBA assumes that the FCC will be able to generate huge sums from licensing more frequencies for high-power 5G and future 6G mobile use, over the next decade.

But while the telecoms operators and CTIA seem broadly pleased with the final legislation – and indeed have been promoting specific bands they would like to obtain – their investors should be asking executives some hard questions about the business case for such massive capital expenditures.

The bill suggests the spectrum proposals could net $85 billion for the US Treasury, based on auctioning of 800 MHz of spectrum currently used by both federal and non-federal users. But importantly, these cited auction revenue estimates are net of any relocation costs to clear incumbent users from those bands. This would mean that gross auction payments from mobile carriers are expected to be substantially in excess of this amount in order to meet necessary relocation and clearing costs.

Read the full piece on Fierce Network.