NTIA to Release 7 GHz Spectrum Study at Dec. 10 Washington Symposium

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration will release its study on clearing 275 megahertz of government-held spectrum at a policy symposium on December 10 in Washington, NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth said Tuesday. The event takes place at the National Press Club, and the study covers the 7.125–7.4 GHz band, which the Department of Defense currently occupies.

The stakes for carriers are considerable. Lower 7 GHz sits in the mid-band range that operators prize for 5G and future 6G capacity, and the report will determine how much of it reaches the commercial market.

What will the report contain?

Roth laid out the substance in unusually specific terms. "At the symposium, we will release our 7 GHz report, including how much spectrum we believe can be made available for commercial use, timelines for access to the band, and the costs associated with relocating current federal users," she said.

She also set out what should happen next: "Once that report is released, we hope the FCC will move quickly to launch a rulemaking for a 7 GHz auction so we can bring this important block of mid-band spectrum to market as quickly as possible."

The timeline has political continuity behind it. NTIA started the lower 7 GHz study process under the Biden administration, and the White House said in December 2025 that it wanted the agency to identify the band for 6G use by the end of 2026.

Which other bands are in the pipeline?

The 7 GHz study is not the only item on NTIA's docket:

• A study of the 1675–1695 MHz band should finish "in the coming months," Roth said.
• NTIA is also examining the 4 GHz and 2.7 GHz bands to gauge their usability for the private sector.
• The agency has already told the Federal Communications Commission that the U.S. should push for mobile use in the lower 7 GHz band at the next World Radiocommunication Conference.

Roth delivered her remarks at a Meridian International Center event focused on next year's WRC, speaking to diplomats and other stakeholders. NTIA posted the full text of her speech online.

How does this fit into WRC-27?

The FCC aims to settle its positions by the end of this month, when regulators from North and South America meet to hammer out regional agreements ahead of the conference. Roth said the U.S. is on track to arrive at that meeting with a finalized position on 19 of its most important agenda items.

Domestic stakeholders remain split on spectrum strategy. Wireless carriers want the U.S. push for mobile use in the 7 GHz and 4 GHz bands, while some spectrum sharing proponents and tech companies would rather hold back. Most WRC agenda items, however, concern space services rather than terrestrial mobile.

On satellites, Roth argued the U.S. should press other countries to modernize power limit rules for low-Earth orbit constellations. The FCC unilaterally departed from the international rules earlier this year, reasoning that global limits set in the 1990s to protect geostationary systems were too restrictive for LEO operators.

"Since modernizing satellite power limits domestically, the United States has seen significant increases in NGSO capacity — without claims of interference from the geostationary operators — helping move us closer to gigabit speeds from space," Roth said.

Why does the satellite issue matter?

There is no formal agenda item on satellite power limits at WRC-27, but some Washington think tanks want the U.S. delegation to raise the issue anyway, citing its importance to American companies. SpaceX dominates the LEO market and launched more mass into orbit last year than the rest of the world combined. Amazon is preparing its own constellation.

Roth said NTIA has already made its case on the matter at training sessions held this year with regulators from developing countries, an effort to build support before the global negotiations begin.

The December 10 symposium will effectively start the clock on the 7 GHz auction process: once the report lands, the pace of the FCC's rulemaking will determine when 275 megahertz of contested mid-band spectrum can finally reach carriers.