Spectrum is a limited national resource, and all of the spectrum bands in the U.S. have already been assigned for use. Yet the Big Three cellular giants are pressuring Congress for another sweetheart deal that would give them exclusive use of even more of America’s scarce spectrum – forcing out the federal agencies and national security systems currently using those bands. The Pentagon estimates that relocating critical radar and missile defense systems from just one of the bands coveted by the Big Three would take 20 years and cost taxpayers at least $250 billion.
Congress should not pick winners and losers – or choose between economic growth and national security. Instead, U.S. spectrum policy should embrace spectrum sharing – an American innovation, led by American companies, that enables more spectrum to come to market more quickly and that lets consumers and businesses securely share wireless bands with critical defense systems. Spectrum sharing lets a much larger set of providers compete for licenses to build out local 5G capacity and private 5G networks – boosting competition and putting more spectrum to work where consumers and businesses need it most. It’s the efficient way to get more out of our scarce national spectrum resources – without jeopardizing our military edge or wasting hundreds of billions of dollars reengineering defense systems.