The U.S. doesn’t have a Spectrum Shortage — It has a Utilization Problem

The mobile industry continues to beat the drum for more spectrum, but it should instead focus on fully utilizing the spectrum already allocated. TBR notes there are vast tranches of spectrum in the U.S. market that are broadly underutilized, either for technical or economic reasons. And challenges will only worsen as the industry aims to bring upper midband frequencies into the fray, which have greater propagation challenges and are less suited for macro coverage.
 

The U.S. needs to do a better job, guided by government institutions like the Federal Communications Commission, of utilizing Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), C-Band, 6GHz and mmWave bands, which are woefully underutilized today. For example, only a relatively small portion of midband spectrum has been deployed in the U.S. market to date, implying that well over half of it has not yet been put to use. (CSPs are either sitting on it or hoarding it.)
 

Most 4G and 5G network traffic in the U.S. today runs over low bands, such as 600MHz to 800MHz, and the lower midband (1GHz to 2.6GHz, especially 2.5GHz), with C-Band increasing but still far from its full utilization potential. MmWave bands hold promise, but for economic and technical reasons, they were used only in very specific situations, mostly for LAN capacity.
 

Additionally, spectrum warehousing entities like EchoStar (which recently reluctantly agreed to sell a portion of its vast spectrum holdings to Starlink and AT&T) and private equities are still sitting on large tranches of unused spectrum. The government should redirect its efforts toward addressing these market dislocations rather than straining to bring new spectrum to a market that might not even be used (case in point, CBRS). This should be a mandatory government push because dislocations created by negative externalities of capitalism threaten to keep the U.S. behind China in key technological domains; specifically, corporations with a scarcity mindset are hoarding, but not necessarily using, the spectrum resources they have. The U.S. is already behind China across several key technologies (e.g., 5G, hypersonic missiles, electric batteries and vehicles, rare earth element processing). It is unacceptable for the U.S. to fall behind on 6G as well.
 

Explore TBR’s 2026 predictions for the telecom industry in our latest special report, Telecom Industry Will Adapt to K-shaped Economy in 2026.