Here's the latest on US efforts to find spectrum for 6G

The NTIA provided an update on the agency's work to open new spectrum for 6G that shows progress across four different bands with the most headway achieved in the 7GHz band.

The agency is tasked with studying and reallocating spectrum for mobile use, as directed by President Trump's "Winning the 6G Race" memorandum issued in December last year. The order followed the One Big Beautiful Bill tax law that opened a spectrum pipeline of up to 800MHz, with at least 600MHz to be identified between 1.3GHz and 10GHz for exclusive licensed use.

The December order from the White House demanded work begin "immediately" and gave NTIA a year to study frequencies in the lower 7GHz band (7125MHz–7400MHz) and explore relocating current federal users to other bands, possibly between 7.4GHz and 8.4GHz.

It also required immediate work on the 2.7GHz band (2700MHz–2900MHz) and the 4.4GHz band (4400MHz–4940MHz). Along with the three bands designated in the memorandum, NTIA is also studying the 1.6GHz band (1675MHz–1695MHz).

This week, the NTIA launched spectrum.gov to track progress on the 6G pipeline and other spectrum policy issues related to satellite communications and preparations for the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027 (WRC-27).

A handy graphic on the new website shows how far along studies are in four key bands.

At the CTIA Summit this week, Arielle Roth, chief administrator at NTIA, discussed how this work is going. "We're well on our way to identifying spectrum in the 7GHz band. Technical work is underway and we remain on track to deliver our final report in December," she said, according to her prepared remarks.

For the 2.7GHz band, the relocation plans are awaiting funding approval from Congress to use the Spectrum Relocation Fund (SRF). Congress has 54 days to decide. "We look forward to the release of funding so we can get this band identified for auction as quickly as possible," Roth said.

The two main federal government users of this band are NOAA and FAA, and NTIA coordinated early with the Department of Defense and other agencies to work out costs for relocation while working with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) "to jumpstart their clearance process," she explained.

For the 4GHz band, NTIA has started reviewing nine plans from the agencies and military departments that will be affected. "This is a big accomplishment for this exciting—albeit complicated—band, and I continue to hold my team's feet to the fire to see plans approved, studies completed, and the band ultimately identified for reallocation," she said.

The progress on preparing 7GHz for commercial use for mobile operators is promising for US 6G ambitions. The frequencies are in the upper midband that covers 6GHz, the so-called "golden band" between 7GHz and 8GHz.

While there are large channels, there are questions about how good the coverage will be in these higher frequencies, said Gabriel Brown, senior principal analyst, mobile networks at Omdia, a Light Reading sister company.

Operators have been testing the 7GHz band, including recent tests by T-Mobile with Ericsson and Nokia. The results are no doubt instructive for the NTIA and FCC.

"Nokia in particular has been relatively open in sharing data from upper 6GHz (in Europe) and 7GHz (in Japan) field tests and the coverage results look pretty encouraging," he said.

Another spectrum challenge with the next generation is that 6G supports a maximum of 400MHz channel bandwidth in the downlink, which is much wider than typical 5G 100MHz channels. The fatter channels are not required but become important for more advanced 6G services like integrated sensing and communication (ISAC).

However, finding 400MHz of contiguous spectrum is a challenge everywhere, not just in the US.

China, arguably, looks to be in a better spectrum position for 6G because it has allocated the entire 6GHz band for cellular use. The US has assigned this band for Wi-Fi, while Europe has carved out the upper 6GHz band for cellular.

The Chinese government approved this week the use of 6GHz frequencies for 6G trials in the country, according to local reports. However, Brown said the value of opening the 6GHz band to Wi-Fi should not be discounted and is beneficial, making the US-China comparison more nuanced.

"The spectrum pipeline for 6G in the US looks okay. The cellular industry is never happy on this topic, but the outlook is decent enough for now," said Brown.

There are two upcoming auctions at the FCC. The first is for AWS-3 spectrum, which starts in June. The next one is the upper C-band auction that is due to be completed no later than July 2027.

Spectrum will be a hot topic at the upcoming 6G Summit taking place at the Network X Americas event from May 18-20 in Dallas.

Michelle Donegan
Senior Editor,
Light Reading