2024 in review: A year without the FCC's auction authority

As the year comes to a close, it will be the first full year in history that the FCC hasn't wielded its auction authority over wireless spectrum.

The Commission lost its authority to auction the nation's airwaves in March 2023. That's the first time that has happened since the agency's authority was first initiated in 1993. Congress failed to extend the FCC's auction authority due to an ongoing battle in Washington over the future of the 3.1GHz-3.45GHz spectrum band.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) has said that it will not release the 3.1GHz-3.45GHz band unless it's able to continue to use a portion of it under a spectrum sharing scenario. But the 5G industry – fronted by the CTIA – would rather get exclusive access to the band.

Congress gets involved

The issue has pushed its way into Congress, and DoD supporters are essentially withholding the FCC's auction authority as a way to block supporters of the 5G industry and exclusive spectrum licensing.

The FCC's inability to allocate spectrum hasn't affected the 5G industry much because the Commission doesn't have a lot of spectrum in its pipeline to auction for commercial uses, at least right now. But the issue has devilled players like T-Mobile, which complained because it wasn't able to obtain the licenses it won during an auction that occurred while the FCC still had authority. T-Mobile took the issue directly to Congress, shepherding legislation that directed the FCC to release its auction winnings.

Whether the FCC will regain its authority in the second Trump administration is anyone's guess.

Here's a timeline of major events related to the FCC's auction authority in 2024: