Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

28. Federal Communications Commission · Notable

Develop a national spectrum strategy with an aggressive timeline

Partially done

853 28. Federal Communications Commission

“Therefore, the FCC and a new Administration should work together to develop a national spectrum strategy that both identifies the specific airwaves that the FCC can free for commercial wireless services and sets an aggressive timeline for agency action.”

What has happened

  1. Partially done

    The FCC freed the first tranche: a Report and Order making 160 megahertz of the Upper C-band (3.98-4.2 GHz) available for terrestrial wireless flexible use, expressly "pursuant to Congress' direction in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to complete a system of competitive bidding by July 4, 2027, for at least 100 megahertz". Auction 115 was scheduled for 2027-04-27 three days later.

  2. Partially done

    The presidential memorandum Winning the 6G Race names the first specific band: section 3 directs NTIA, under section 40002(c)(2)(A), to begin identifying 7.125-7.4 GHz for reallocation to full-power commercial licensed use, section 2 orders relocation studies for the federal incumbents there with a 12-month reporting deadline, and section 4 orders feasibility studies of 2.69-2.9 GHz and 4.4-4.94 GHz. Still not a published national spectrum strategy: no strategy document has been issued in the window, and NTIA's spectrum publications page carries none.

  3. Partially done

    Section 40002 of P.L. 119-21 delivers the substance of the ask by statute rather than by strategy document. It restores the FCC's general auction authority through 2034; requires the Commission to auction at least 300 megahertz, including at least 100 megahertz between 3.98 and 4.2 GHz within two years of enactment; requires NTIA, in consultation with the FCC, to identify 500 megahertz of federal spectrum in the 1.3-10.5 GHz band for reallocation — 200 megahertz within two years and the rest within four — and to auction 200 megahertz within four years and the balance within eight. That is an aggressive timeline. The specific airwaves are bounded but not yet named: the covered band is a range, with 3.1-3.45 GHz and 7.4-8.4 GHz carved out.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Held at partial rather than done because the named object — a national spectrum strategy — does not exist in the window. What exists is a statutory pipeline with deadlines and a presidential memorandum naming one band, which between them do the two things the Quote wanted a strategy to do. The alternative reading (delivered by other means, therefore done) is raised for the ticket 26 consistency pass.
  • The National Spectrum Strategy of November 2023 and its March 2024 implementation plan are pre-window and are not this Administration’s. "national spectrum strategy" returns three Federal Register documents since 2025-01-20, all FCC rulemakings citing the 2023 document.
  • P.L. 119-21 is cited in the window under three names — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (the FCC’s Upper C-band order), the Working Families Tax Cut Act (NTIA’s Spectrum.gov announcement) and “H.R. 1, reconciliation” — which is the playbook §1.1 rename trap in a single statute. Searching on the popular name alone misses it.
  • Other in-window FCC spectrum releases pointing the same way: AWS-3 Auction 113 (2025-08-04, 2025-12-23), the Lower 37 GHz band (2025-06-12), the 896-901/935-940 MHz band (2026-03-31), 6 GHz unlicensed expansion (2026-02-25) and upper microwave (2025-12-03).
Action
create
Object
National spectrum strategy
ID
2207