Washington rarely discovers an economic policy that promotes investment, strengthens national security, improves services for consumers and raises billions of dollars for the Treasury without imposing a new tax. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carrs newly announced “super band” spectrum auction manages to do all four.
Spectrum may be invisible, but it is among the most in the modern economy. It carries phone calls, financial transactions, emergency communications, industrial data, streaming video and the growing volume of information moving between connected devices.
The FCC has moved to auction 160 megahertz of the Upper C-band â the valuable mid-band airwaves that provide the combination of speed, capacity and geographic reach required by modern wireless networks.
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Congress directed the commission to make at least 100 megahertz available. The FCC went further, adding another 60 megahertz and combining it with spectrum cleared in 2020. The result will be a contiguous block of more than 400 megahertz, creating one of the most commercially useful bands of wireless spectrum in the world.
This will be the first major federal spectrum auction in . The commission also moved from a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to a final order faster than it has in any comparable proceeding during the 5G era.
That urgency is welcome.
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Keeping usable spectrum idle â or trapped in inefficient government allocations â has real costs. Networks arent built. Jobs arent created. New services dont reach consumers. American companies lose ground to foreign competitors.
Auctions offer the quintessentially American solution: Free up and use markets.
A properly gets spectrum to companies that value it most and are prepared to put it to productive use. It establishes clear, enforceable rights. It encourages private investment. And it generates revenue for the federal government without raising anyones income, payroll or capital-gains taxes.
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The economic potential is enormous. The FCC estimates that putting this spectrum to work could add as much as $264 billion to gross domestic product, support 1.5 million jobs and create nearly $390 billion in benefits for consumers.
Those estimates may sound ambitious, but history shows the value of these airwaves. The first C-band auction in 2000 raised roughly $81 billion for the federal government. Few government actions can promote economic growth, encourage lower consumer prices and reduce federal borrowing at the same time.
This one can because it relies on competition rather than command-and-control regulation.
The auction is also a national security imperative.
The country that leads in mid-band spectrum will have an enormous advantage in 5G, the emerging 6G economy and the artificial-intelligence, robotics, transportation and defense applications that depend on advanced connectivity.
Wireless leadership isnt merely about more quickly. It determines which countrys companies develop the next generation of network equipment, whose technical standards are adopted internationally and where the investment and high-paying jobs associated with these technologies are created.
China understands this. Beijing has long treated spectrum as a
