WASHINGTON—A pair of Federal Communications Commission actions today aim to open up spectrum for greater use—one via a new auction to promote advanced communication services and another ending restrictions that prevent drones from operating in 50 MHz of low-band spectrum in the 800-MHz band.
The new spectrum auction covers 25 MHz of midband spectrum in the 1,675-1,695 MHz and 2,020-2,025 MHz bands—bandwidth generally used for meteorological data and federal space operations. The auction aims to make the spectrum available for advanced applications, including direct-to-device, flexible use and terrestrial networks like 5G.
This vote begins the auction process and follows the completion of a $3.5 billion auction of AWS-3 inventory spectrum. It precedes a planned auction of 160 MHz of Upper C-band spectrum by July 2027. The Trump administration plans to make up to 400 MHz of spectrum available for commercial use through auction by 2028, including spectrum in the 2.7 GHz and 7 GHz bands.
The notice of proposed rulemaking would reallocate the 1,675–1,695 MHz band on a co-primary basis for commercial fixed and mobile services, while adding a secondary (noninterference) allocation for mobile satellite services providing domestic supplemental coverage from space (SCS). It would also add a secondary SCS allocation in the 2,020–2,025 MHz band. The move expands on a 2019 proposal to share the 1,675–1,680 MHz portion between incumbent federal operations and commercial wireless providers.
The FCC action to unlock the 800 MHz cellular band for drone command, control, communications and payload operations addresses a decades-old restriction on the use of the band for airborne cellular service. The agency said it is no longer necessary to apply that restriction to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) because modern wireless networks employ advanced technologies to prevent such interference.
The restriction stems from a 1991 prohibition on airborne use to minimize the risk of interference to terrestrial networks from cellphones on planes. However, it also impinged upon drone operations. The agency’s vote undoes that by allowing drone operations in the band.
