The FCC Is About to Raise Billions. Congress Should Invest it in Fiber Infrastructure

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has announced his plans to begin freeing up valuable airwaves within the C-Band, a part of the spectrum—the radio frequencies that our cell carriers, television stations, and others use to transmit services—historically used for satellite television. Once freed, the spectrum would be auctioned and used for 5G and other advanced wireless services. The FCC is making the right call here. This announcement puts the public interest ahead of the desires of the few private actors currently occupying the spectrum, who sought to leverage the hype around 5G to enrich themselves at the public’s expense. But the fundamental challenge facing nationwide coverage of 5G is the lack of ubiquitous dense fiber infrastructure, which 5G relies on. Why hasn’t the U.S. made fiber a priority in the same way? Part of the problem is we’ve allowed the hype around 5G to blind us to the $80+ billion challenge of building out dense fiber networks to support national 5G.