ECE 445S Real-Time Digital Signal Processing Laboratory - Lecture 13 - Announcements

Announcements: Spectrum Regulation and Auctions

• Worldwide spectrum allocations compiled by Rohde & Schwarz
• Wireless spectrum in US regulated by
  • Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for consumer and other non-governmental use
    • Licensed bands -- Cellular communication services, Satellite TV, etc.
    • Unlicensed bands -- 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz, 60 GHz, etc. -- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other services
  • National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) for government use
    • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for aircraft industry
    • NASA passive satellites to monitor air and weather
    • Global positioning system (GPS)
• 2025 FCC auction of AWS-3 cellular bands
  • $81B for 65 MHz of bandwidth, or $1246M/MHz [Ref]
  • AWS-3 Bands: 1695-1710 MHz + 1755-1780 MHz + 2155-2180 MHz
  • Sequel to the 2015 auction described below
• US "FCC auction of rural 2.5 GHz county licenses to begin July 29" and "FCC Announces Winning Bidders of 2.5 GHz Auction" RCR Wireless, March 22, 2022.
  • 2.5 GHz band Established in early 1960s for educational and religious programming broadcast
  • Never really took off; licensees leased band to Sprint (T-Mobile) for cellular service
  • Auction intended to close gap in 5G service in rural areas
  • Auction consisted of 8,000 county-level licenses, mostly in rural areas of the US.
  • Bands of bandwidths 49.5 MHz, 50.5 MHz and 17.5 MHz will be auctioned.
  • The 49.5 MHz and 50.5 MHz bands are adjacent.
  • $428M raised for the 117.5 MHz of bandwidth, or $3.6M/MHz
• "3GPP commences 6 GHz IMT licensed spectrum standardization", Telecom Review, January 5, 2022
• US "Auction 110 update: $18.7 billion and counting", Kelly Hill, RCR Wireless News, Oct. 22, 2021.
  • 3.45 GHz spectrum with 100 MHz bandwidth divided into ten 10-MHz chunks
  • Each licenses is in different locality (geographical area)
  • In 36 localities, licensees will have to coordinate their use of the band with incumbent military systems
  • Bids currently exceed $18.7B, which is $187M per MHz of bandwidth
• US "C Band auction's first phase wraps up at $80.92 billion", Kelly Hill, RCR Wireless News, Jan. 15, 2021
  • C band is 3.7-4.0 GHz
  • 5,684 licenses, or 14 sub-blocks in each of 406 available Partial Economic Areas
    • A block: 100 MHz (five 20 MHz sub-blocks) 3.7-3.8 GHz (cleared by Dec. 2021)
    • B block: 100 MHz (five 20 MHz sub-blocks) 3.8-3.9 GHz
    • C block: 80 MHz (four 20 MHz sub-blocks) 3.9-3.98 GHz
    • 20 MHz guard band for satellite operators 3.98-4.0 GHz
    • Satellite operators to move operations to 4.0-4.2 GHz band
  • Auction raised $14.2M per license or $269.7M per MHz
  • "Verizon fetes C-band trials using 200 MHz" bandwidths, Monica Alleven, Fierce Wireless, Sep 12, 2022.
• Emerging 37-43.5 GHz band
  • North America uses 37-40.5 GHz
  • Europe uses 40.5-43.5 GHz
  • China uses 37-42.5 GHz
• FCC wraps up third millimeter wave 5G spectrum auction by Bevin Fletcher, Fierce Wireless, Mar 6, 2020
  • 1st Round: 28 GHz band with 0.85 GHz bandwidth (Verizon 72%, US Cellular 18%, T-Mobile 5.5% of licenses)
  • 2nd Round: 24 GHz band with 0.70 GHz bandwidth (AT&T 49%, T-Mobile 40%, US Cellular 6% of licenses)
  • 3rd Round: 37, 39, 47 GHz bands with 1, 1, 1.4 GHz bandwidth (T-Mobile, AT&T, Dish, Sprint won most licenses)
  • Auctioned in 100 MHz subbands
  • Each company cannot have more than four 100 MHz subbands in each band
• Global 5G sub-6 GHz band 3.4-4.2 GHz (Oct. 2019)
• Globally harmonized 5G mmWave band 24.5-29.5 GHz (Oct. 2019)
  • 26 GHz band (24.25-27.5 GHz) European Commission - Australia
  • 28 GHz band (26.5-29.5 GHz)
• 2016-2017 FCC auction of broadcast TV bands dashboard and story
  • Spectrum: 580 MHz to 700 MHz
  • Reverse auction: 175 broadcast TV stations gave up licensed spectrum ($10B)
  • Forward auction: 50 companies bid on relinquished spectrum ($19B) with largest accepted bids T-Mobile ($8B), Dish Network ($6.2B), Comcast ($1.7B) and AT&T ($0.91B)
• 2015 FCC auction of wireless spectrum (story)
  • $44.9B for 65 MHz of bandwidth, or $690M/MHz
  • AWS-3 Bands: 1695-1710 MHz + 1755-1780 MHz + 2155-2180 MHz
  • Highest bidders: AT&T ($18.2B), Dish ($13.3B), and Verizon ($10.4B).

Last updated 10/30/25. Send comments to bevans@ece.utexas.edu