Schools and Phone Companies Face Off Over Wireless Spectrum

The Federal Communications Commission recently published a plan to auction off unused wireless spectrum originally set aside for schools. Only about half of this chunk of spectrum, now known as the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) has been licensed to schools or educational organizations. Education groups and the wireless industry have been asking the FCC to license the rest for years. Under the new plan, schools and educational organizations that already have EBS licenses will be able to keep them or sell them to commercial carriers. Tribal Nations will get a chance to apply for the unassigned licenses; the remaining licenses will be auctioned off. An earlier version of the proposal released in 2018 would have allowed not only Tribal Nations but also schools and educational groups to apply for licenses ahead of the auction. Critics of the new proposal say the FCC's plan will hand more control over public airwaves to commercial interests at the expense of communities and educational organizations. John Windhausen Jr., executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, says the FCC plan would be "disastrous for online learning, 5G deployment, and rural consumers."