The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to move forward with additional spectrum auction proceedings, according to an agency adviser who spoke with Broadband Breakfast.

The adviser said more Notices of Proposed Rulemaking — the formal documents that open the door to spectrum auctions in the US — are coming soon. For carriers and cable operators watching Washington, that signal matters: no NPRM, no auction. The multi-step process runs from NPRM, through a Report and Order that adopts final auction rules, to the bidding itself, and each stage typically takes months.

The timing of the adviser's comments comes as the FCC works to rebuild its auction pipeline. Congress restored the commission's auction authority in 2024 after it lapsed in March 2022, leaving a two-year gap in which the agency could not sell new licenses. Operators, particularly mid-band 5G spectrum buyers, have been pressing the FCC to refill the inventory of commercial airwaves.

An NPRM is only the first step in the sequence, and the adviser did not specify which bands the upcoming proceedings would cover. What it does indicate is that the commission's staff intends to keep multiple auction tracks moving in parallel rather than advancing a single band at a time.

For the wireless industry, the practical question is how quickly proposed rules translate into actual bidding. Recent US spectrum sales have drawn tens of billions of dollars in gross bids — the C-band auction that concluded in 2021 raised roughly $81 billion — and carriers budget licensing outlays years ahead of deployment.

Stakeholders will get their first concrete look at the FCC's plans when the draft NPRMs appear on the commission's public meeting agenda or in its weekly circulation of items. Until then, the adviser's statement stands as a scheduling signal rather than a rule commitment, and interested parties will likely weigh in during the comment periods that each NPRM opens.