Wireless
Navigate forward to interact with the calendar and select a date. Press the question mark key to get the keyboard shortcuts for changing dates.
Navigate backward to interact with the calendar and select a date. Press the question mark key to get the keyboard shortcuts for changing dates.
As the Internet has evolved from an occasional-use resource to a pervasive, always-on broadband ecosystem, the networking technologies underpinning it have developed faster than legal and regulatory frameworks can adjust. This has led to complex policy challenges that must be overcome to ensure that networks of the future can develop to their fullest potential. On wireless policy, ITIF's focus areas include analyzing policies and trends related to wireless technology, spectrum management and sharing, and radio usage rights.
Featured
Five Principles for Spectrum Policy: A Primer for Policymakers
Spectrum policy takes engineering and technical realities as inputs to a decision-making process that is driven by normative principles. While many competing principles have had their heyday, these five are enduring guides to making spectrum work in the public interest.
More Publications and Events
February 27, 2023|Reports & Briefings
Filling Gaps in US Spectrum Allocation: Reforms for Collaborative Management
Interrelated gaps and failures in the process and policies used to efficiently allocate spectrum demand comprehensive reform. To prevent future failures, policymakers must improve device performance, increase data gathering and sharing, and clarify the spectrum allocation process.
January 30, 2023|Reports & Briefings
Building on Uncle Sam’s “Beachfront” Spectrum: Six Ways to Align Incentives to Make Better Use of the Airwaves
The federal government controls large swaths of the electromagnetic spectrum, but the current system for managing it lacks effective ways to incentivize agencies to use it efficiently. Congress and the Biden administration should promote good stewardship of spectrum and better enable it to power both federal missions and the commercial wireless ecosystem.
December 5, 2022|Testimonies & Filings
Comments to the FCC Regarding Use of Radar Devices in the 60-64 GHz Band
Making productive use of spectrum is central to the FCC’s purpose and goals. It has an opportunity to increase the productivity of the 60-64 GHz band by permitting airborne radar devices to operate near ground level. Specifically, it should seek a technical arrangement that permits the maximum commercial use of this band while also protecting the federal interest in the Earth Exploration Satellite Service.
November 14, 2022|Presentations
Building the Pipeline: Auction Authority and Spectrum Allocation in the United States
Joe Kane joins a panel speaking on what is being done to ensure spectrum is put to its best and highest use, and if there is enough spectrum to keep pace with demand and innovation.
September 27, 2022|Blogs
5G Can Play a Role in Reducing Environmental Harm
Even as greenhouse gas emissions keep increasing, solutions are emerging—some of the most promising of which stem from technological innovations, including burgeoning 5G.
September 26, 2022|Reports & Briefings
Why We Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love Spectrum Windfalls
Many attempts to increase the flexibility of wireless spectrum rights meet objections that the method of reallocation will result in a windfall for corporate license holders. Far from being objectionable, however, allowing windfalls in spectrum reallocation creates virtuous incentives.
July 27, 2022|Testimonies & Filings
Comments to the FCC Regarding Efficient Use of Spectrum Through Improved Receiver Interference Immunity Performance
The Commission should incentivize voluntary, industry-led standards and take a forward-looking approach to the future interference environment by establishing a clear framework for adjudicating interference claims in the face of differential receiver quality.
July 5, 2022|Reports & Briefings
Spectrum Sharing: Holy Grail or False Hope?
To some, spectrum sharing is an innovative necessity. To others, it is a recipe for wasting valuable bandwidth. The truth is more nuanced. The spectrum-sharing landscape is marked with promising ideas and technologies that require further investment to be generalizable solutions.
March 21, 2022|Podcasts
Podcast: The Promise of 5G, With Susie Armstrong
March 7, 2022|Op-Eds & Commentary, Blogs
New Spectrum Technologies Aren’t the Problem, They’re the Solution
The recent interagency spat between the FAA and FCC over the rollout of 5G services in the C band was a case study in more than just bureaucratic turf wars. It shows how failure to invest in technological upgrades can leave some players looking silly while they struggle to adjust to changing times.