US FCC loses its authority to allocate spectrum as China pushes ahead with 5G

The Federal Communications Commission of the United States (FCC) temporarily lost the power to assign spectrum frequenciesafter the Senate of that country did not reach a consensus to extend until next May 19 the discussions in this matter and that eventually would have allowed renewing for another ten years the authority of the FCC to auction radio bands.

This way, USA Today, there is no sector authority that is in charge of bidding for frequencies for telecommunications services, such as telephony or Internet and other new generation services, while China, its technological rival, advances with the provision of assigning various bands in its own market for coverage. and capacity and with the construction by 2022 of more than a million stations only for services 5G.

The House of Representatives had approved in February to extend this power of the FCC until May, after the current period expired on March 9 and after ten years of validity, and while the FCC hastened frequency assignment processes. The Senate also did not ratify the agreement approved by the House of Representatives.

Among the discussions in the US Senate, there were various disagreements between politicians for voting on the call Spectrum Innovation Actwhich also had an impact on the revalidation of the powers of the FCC.

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Among other subjects, the approval of this law would have also allowed channeling up to 10,000 million dollars to update emergency systems such as the number 911with resources obtained from taxes imposed by the country for the exploitation of frequencies.

The Senate also did not make a decision on whether if the FCC lose its ability to assign frequencies, it would then be the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) the authority in charge of granting such concessions.

The Federal Communications Commission, the equivalent authority to the Federal Institute of Telecommunications of Mexico (IFT)urged the United States Congress to reach agreements that allow it to soon recover its authority to compete for radio frequencies.

The FCC hoped that Congress would “quickly restore” its power to bid on the frequencies.

This authority indicated that in For 30 years, it has organized more than a hundred competitions of spectrum on the market and allowed the United States Treasury to obtain resources of up to 233,000 million dollars.

“For three decades, the FCC’s authority to auction off the nation’s airwaves has been an indispensable tool for harnessing the promise of new wireless technologies. Technologies that simultaneously spur economic growth, create jobs, and strengthen our national security and global leadership. Time and time again our auctions have proven to be a huge engine for market innovation and the flourishing ecosystem of the Internet, and for
expand the reach of next-generation connectivity for everyone, everywhere,” the FCC said.

“The FCC has conducted 100 auctions and has raised more than $233 billion in revenue and unlocked extraordinary benefits for the American people. We expect the FCC’s auction authority to be restored quickly,” the regulator said.

The CTIA, the chamber that represents the mobile industry in the United States and where companies such as Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T participate, indicated that the work of the FCC regulator has allowed these types of companies to invest up to 265,000 million dollars for the exploitation of frequencies in mobile services, also generating 4.5 million jobs and a GDP of 825,000 million dollars.

“Congress has never allowed the FCC’s spectrum auction authority to lapse until now (…) Without this authority and spectrum to meet accelerating demand for wireless broadband, the United States risks falling behind China and other nations.” to lead globally in new 5G innovations and the industries of the future,” the CTIA said.