TechNet Wades Into 5G Fight Over Defense Bill

Trade group TechNet, which counts AT&T and Verizon among members, is sounding the alarm over language in the Senate defense bill, S. 1790, ordering the Defense Department to create a test-bed program for “innovative technologies and techniques to facilitate” spectrum sharing between 5G service providers and incumbent airwaves occupants. Wireless heavyweights view this language as a Pentagon power grab over 5G and are lobbying to strip it from the bill before the House and Senate settle on a consensus version. “Granting this new authority to DOD would mark a significant policy shift by the federal government,” TechNet wrote congressional negotiators, noting that the Federal Communications Commission traditionally oversees private-sector use of American airwaves. A Senate Armed Services spokesperson has said lawmakers have no intention of upending the government’s airwaves jurisdiction, telling John last month the committee “hopes to maintain this provision” in the final bill and “believes it is very important to modernize infrastructure to support future capabilities across the government for spectrum sharing.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) unsuccessfully sought to strike the language this summer prior to Senate passage. The provision “represents a counterproductive and unnecessary departure in which the federal government would encroach upon the management of non-federal spectrum in the name of spectrum sharing,” a Cruz spokesman said.