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  "description": "NTIA also revamped spectrum.gov to display progress of spectrum studies.",
  "path": "/wireless-cable-industries-at-odds-over-spectrum-needs-for-ai/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-07T21:46:24.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "a report",
    "event Wednesday",
    "in a statement",
    "event last year",
    "group’s event",
    "spoken in favor",
    "spectrum.gov",
    "relocation plans"
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  "textContent": "WASHINGTON, May 7, 2026 – The wireless carriers and cable industry are once again at odds over the right direction for U.S. spectrum policy.\n\nCTIA, the wireless industry group, released a report ahead of its event Wednesday calling for more licensed spectrum to meet projected demand from artificial intelligence users. The report said Accenture found networks in high-traffic areas could hit “peak capacity for AI traffic” before the end of the decade.\n\nThe resulting unmet demand for wireless traffic could result in an eye-popping $1.4 trillion drag on U.S. GDP over the following 10 years, the report said.\n\nThe Commerce Department is already studying government spectrum with the goal of freeing up as much as possible for the carriers. In a July budget bill, Congress mandated the auction of 800 megahertz for mobile use by 2034.\n\nThe 2.7 GigaHertz (GHz) band being studied currently “will help address near-term demand,” CTIA wrote, but the group said it needed more. The report pointed to the 4 GHz band and “the 6/7 GHz range, starting with the 275 megahertz earmarked in the President’s 6G memorandum.”\n\nThe White House said in December it wanted 7.125-7.4 GHz for 6G mobile use. But the 6 GHz band is already set aside for unlicensed Wi-Fi use in the U.S., a decision made in the first Trump administration.\n\nThe cable industry favors shared spectrum over the exclusive, higher power licenses the nationwide mobile networks run on. The cable giants offer mobile services through deals with Verizon, but offload the large majority of their traffic onto Wi-Fi. Plus, more licensed spectrum for the carriers is more headroom for fixed wireless, which is competing fiercely with cable for broadband subscribers.\n\nSo NCTA, the major cable trade group, was not happy to see “the 6/7 GHz range” called out in the CTIA report.\n\n“A report that warns about surging wireless traffic — while arguing to take away spectrum from the Wi-Fi networks carrying 90 percent of that traffic — is too ridiculous to take seriously,” NCTA wrote in a statement, adding the report “repackages a stale, anticompetitive agenda.”\n\n**Umair Javed** , CTIA’s general counsel, said at an event last year that the 7 GHz spectrum was attractive because other countries have set aside some 6 GHz spectrum for mobile use, and U.S. carriers could thus get in on the same equipment ecosystem as companies produce radios capable of using either of the two bands.\n\nAn agenda item at the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference in Shanghai will ask about tapping the 4.4 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands for mobile use. CTIA wants the U.S. to push for that outcome, while NCTA and some consumer groups want to hold off while the government studies of each of those play out.\n\n**Ajit Pai** , CTIA’s CEO and FCC chairman when the agency opened 6 Ghz for unlicensed use, said the the group’s event that extra licensed spectrum was going to be important for 6G networks, which he said will be “built with AI to dynamically allocate spectrum, anticipate congestion, and even sense the physical environment,” and for making sure networks have the capacity to handle extra usage.\n\n“And not just any spectrum — but larger, contiguous blocks of mid-band spectrum that can support the scale and performance AI demands,” he said. “For the volume of traffic we will see in the years to come, we will also need much bigger blocks from the 4 and 6/7 GHz bands.”\n\nStill, a White House advisor and the head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which manages government spectrum and is studying it for potential repurposing, have spoken in favor of Wi-Fi. The White House advisor, **Robin Colwell** , has since left to lead the government affairs team at Intel.\n\nFCC Chairman **Brendan Carr** , speaking at the CTIA event, said he saw the 800 megahertz pipeline of spectrum as important for U.S. AI leadership.\n\n### _Spectrum.gov_\n\nNTIA also revamped the spectrum.gov site Thursday. The site now shows progress on the various spectrum relocation studies it is conducting.\n\nSpectrum study progress chart from NTIA\n\nThe 7 GHz studies, which started during the Biden administration, are the furthest along. T**ricia Paoletta** , NTIA’s senior spectrum advisor, said in March that getting spectrum relocation plans from agencies currently using government spectrum can be a difficult task.\n\nNTIA’s chart shows those plans haven’t been cleared by NTIA and submitted to Congress. The band has 15 agencies using it, making for a lot of work, but Paoletta said the planning should be done in time for studies to begin in earnest in the summer or fall.\n\nOnce Congress clears the 2.7 GHz and 1.6 GHz pipeline plans, which will be on June 9 for the 1.6 GHz according to NTIA Administrator **Arielle Roth** ’s speech at the CTIA event, agencies can start preparing and conducting field tests to gauge the bands’ viability for mobile use.\n\nCongress has to review those plans for 60 days.",
  "title": "Wireless, Cable Industries at Odds over Spectrum Needs for AI",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-21T21:48:40.519Z"
}