Commissioner Rosenworcel Remarks at Mobile World Congress Americas

I'm going to be the first Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission to talk about 6G wireless service. Getting from here to there won’t be simple. In fact, I think it will require Washington to reassess some policies it holds dear and considers tried and true. I want to talk about three things we should revisit for the spectrum policy of the future— valuation, auction, and distribution.

• Valuation: The Congressional Budget Office now “scores” every spending bill. That means it takes every big idea about how we use our airwaves and subjects it to a grinding review of its impact on the budget and deficit. This analysis is important. It’s useful. But in practice, these estimates can hamper creative ideas about long-term infrastructure investment, including how we can free more of our airwaves to support economic grow.
• Auctions: We need to structure our auctions to increase the universe of spectrum interests if we want this tool to continue to be viable in the future.
• Distribution: We need to make sure dynamic, not binary, spectrum access becomes the norm rather than the exception.