Let's Keep Driving Forward on Connected Cars & Next-Gen Wi-Fi

These days, there isn’t a lot of harmony in the world of technology policy. But there is a bright spot of bipartisanship in a section of our airwaves: the 5.9 GHz band. In 2020, the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to modernize the rules in this spectrum to allow both Wi-Fi and automotive safety tech to operate. This win-win was celebrated by proponents of car safety and broadband alike. But now the Department of Transportation (DOT) is working on a study that may purposely have been designed to undo this decision. At a time when broadband is more important than ever, we should not undo this popular and bipartisan policy. Rather than relitigate the FCC’s policy on a spectrum matter that is squarely in its jurisdiction, DOT should focus on helping the automotive industry deliver on those vehicle-safety promises, bringing the automotive industry’s new C-V2X technology to vehicles. Spectrum is a finite asset, and after a twenty-year grant of exclusive use of the band, the FCC was right to not allow this critical mid-band frequency to lay fallow any longer. Given the importance of the 5.9 GHz band to the country, the federal government must speak with a unified voice on spectrum. Congress should direct the DOT to drop this testing immediately.

[Ian Adams is Executive Director of the International Center for Law & Economics. Kathleen Burke is Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge. Deborah Collier is Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs at Citizens Against Government Waste. Alan Inouye is Senior Director of Public Policy & Government Relations at the American Library Association. Ryan Johnston is Policy Counsel for Federal Programs at Next Century Cities. Andrew Jay Schwartzman is Senior Counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. Joel Thayer is President of the Digital Progress Institute.]