Why the Administration Needs to Deliver on Spectrum

Center for Strategic and International Studies | Grace Koh and Matt Pearl

The United States Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to restore the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum auction authority, mandating the release of 800 megahertz of mid-band spectrum to secure a strategic advantage over China in artificial intelligence deployment. This legislative mandate requires the executive branch to transition at least 500 megahertz of federally controlled frequencies to commercial use.

Historically, federal control over vital frequencies has created bureaucratic fragmentation, with individual agencies treating spectrum as proprietary turf rather than a shared national resource. Bureaucratic inertia slows technological progress. The authors advocate centralizing spectrum management within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Federal Communications Commission to streamline these transitions. Leveraging collaborative models like the Department of Defense's FutureG Office can facilitate industry partnerships, ensuring rapid commercialization of advanced wireless networks to power AI applications across the physical economy.

Comment

The Department of Defense's FutureG Office represents a shift in how military establishments view commercial technology integration. By partnering with private industry rather than hoarding spectrum, this office bypasses traditional bureaucratic barriers to accelerate dual-use innovations. This collaborative model directly impacts the transmission of high-volume telemetry across the FCC-regulated commercial bands. Spectrum access dictates modern operational speed.

A successful transition of these frequencies will likely accelerate the deployment of AI-driven edge computing within the Indo-Pacific theater. Consequently, the NTIA's ability to centralise federal spectrum management will determine the operational readiness of MQ-9 Reaper platforms and autonomous logistics networks.

Strategic Question for Discussion

If the collaborative model pioneered by the FutureG Office fails to scale across other federal agencies, how will the United States reconcile the competing spectrum demands of commercial AI developers and military radar systems?

The pattern suggests that a failure to scale this collaborative model will result in prolonged bureaucratic gridlock, forcing the White House to make ad-hoc spectrum allocations. This trajectory indicates that commercial AI developers would face persistent bandwidth constraints, ultimately degrading the deployment of dual-use edge technologies in contested environments. My assessment is that without a unified framework, federal agencies will default to protectionist spectrum hoarding, undermining broader national security objectives.

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