How the FCC lost a year in “the race to 5G”

A year ago, the Trump Federal Communications Commission announced a proposal to reallocate C-band spectrum for 5G. With much fanfare, the FCC trumpeted a plan to outsource to the satellite companies the process of auctioning these airwaves. Rather than the kind of open and transparent auction process the agency has followed since the first spectrum auction in 1994, the Trump FCC declared it would be “faster” to embrace what they called a “marketplace approach” in which the licensees took over the job traditionally done by the FCC. The tradeoff for moving “faster” was that the licensees—rather than the American taxpayer—would keep the money the auction generated. By thus outsourcing its responsibilities, the Trump FCC explained, they would be adhering to Republican marketplace orthodoxy, but more importantly, getting the spectrum in the hands of 5G networks “faster.” It has been a year since that announcement and the “faster” process has yet to bear fruit. The current goal of the FCC is to decide whether to proceed with the outsourcing, or adopt another solution, by the end of 2019. Over a year and a half will have been wasted as the Trump FCC tried to find a way to pass off its essential public interest determinations to private interests.