Cellular Giants Threaten Trump’s Job-Creating Spectrum Success, Study Warns

The following content is sponsored by Spectrum for the Future.

America’s largest wireless carriers are trying to dismantle a Trump-era success story that created U.S. jobs from farm to factory. Their lobbyists are pressuring regulators to significantly increase power limits in the 3.5 GHz band of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), a spectrum-sharing framework successfully launched during President Trump’s first term that allows thousands of U.S. companies to build their own 5G wireless networks. A new technical analysis from Valo Analytica reveals what’s really at stake if the big three cellular companies have the opportunity to drown out the thousands of people who have invested billions in building this ecosystem: Higher power puts all of that at risk.

Launched in 2020, CBRS is a significant success story of the Trump era that has spurred billions in private investment and enabled more than 1,000 different operators to use the same spectrum without interference. Rural broadband providers that support thousands of U.S. jobs, U.S. manufacturers like John Deere, hospitals operating connected medical devices, utilities managing smart grid operations, agricultural cooperatives deploying precision agriculture technologies, and critical infrastructure like Miami International Airport all depend on CBRS continuing to operate as intended.

Current rules allow U.S. companies to build their own competitive networks without being tied to the big three wireless carriers — no gatekeepers, no red tape. But if Big Cellular has its way, that freedom – and the competition and innovation it enables – will be crushed by government picking winners and losers.

At risk: John Deere’s next-generation manufacturing plant

The Valo Analytica study details what the higher power levels favored by large mobile phone companies mean in practice. At John Deere’s manufacturing plants in Illinois, external interference from a single nearby high-power tower would render significant portions of their manufacturing network unusable. Allowing high power levels would force companies to abandon billions in investments in private networks and put at risk American jobs supported by these networks.

At risk: critical infrastructure systems at Miami International Airport

Miami International Airport faces equally serious consequences. A single high-power deployment anywhere in Miami would instantly reduce the capacity of the airport’s CBRS network by a third. Miami uses this network for security systems, runway surveillance, customs operations and baggage handling. Airport officials warned that the potential loss of capacity posed by higher power would be catastrophic for public safety operations.

At Risk: Rural Internet Service Across the United States

Amplex Internet, a rural broadband provider in Ohio, provides a glimpse of what would happen nationally if more powerful devices were allowed in CBRS. The provider is currently experiencing disruptions from Canadian high-power 3.5 GHz operations across the border, resulting in outages and disruptions for customers across Amplex’s network. Allowing higher-powered CBRS operations in the United States would cause similar disruptions and headaches for rural providers across the country. Wireless Internet service providers like Amplex account for approximately 85% of all CBRS deployments nationwide. Major changes to CBRS rules would harm their ability to provide rural broadband service in communities that the big three cellular companies have largely neglected – threatening loss of connectivity, economic opportunity and thousands of jobs.

The essentials

CBRS works because low power levels and smaller licenses allow access to multiple network operators to provide interference-free services to other users, making the most of a scarce national resource. If Big Cellular were allowed to rewrite the rules and increase power, access for current users would be destroyed across a wide geographic area and across a wide range of U.S. industries.

The question is simple. Does the FCC want to preserve a swath of spectrum that supports competition, innovation, American jobs and private investment – ​​or does it want to tip the scales to concentrate even more power on Big Cellular?

For detailed technical analysis, the full Valo Analytica study is available here. Comments on the FCC’s proceeding may be filed via the FCC’s electronic comment system under GN Docket No. 17-258.