ITIF Applauds D.C. Circuit Court’s Decision to Uphold FCC’s Order on the Reallocation of the 5.9 GHz Band

WASHINGTON—In response to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s decision to uphold a 2020 FCC order that reallocated part of the 5.9 GHz band from vehicle-to-vehicle communication to unlicensed use, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, released the following statement from ITIF director of broadband and spectrum policy Joe Kane.

The court's decision today emphasizes that the FCC has broad authority over spectrum allocation. Industries and other federal agencies deserve to be heard in this process, but the FCC is the agency with the technical and policy expertise to analyze those views and make the tradeoffs that are inherent in commercial spectrum allocation.

In this case, the FCC's decision to reallocate part of the 5.9 GHz band to support unlicensed uses, like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, was not only legal, but it was also good policy. Allocating spectrum bands to particular technologies is an inefficient vestige of misguided spectrum policies of the past. The fruits of that inflexible system were seen in the over 20 years that the 5.9 GHz band lay fallow. A more flexible, market-based approach will better serve consumers of all wireless services, including intelligent transportation systems.