Invoice is headed to President Joe Biden’s desk

Congress has handed a invoice that will allow T-Cell US and different winners in the newest public sale of two.5 GHz licenses to take possession of spectrum licenses that have been acquired throughout a 2022 public sale however have been in processing limbo because of the expiration of the FCC’s spectrum public sale authority.

The Federal Communications Fee’s statutory authority to public sale licenses expired in early March 2023. In consequence, the FCC stopped all auction-related exercise—together with processing the switch of licenses which had already been auctioned and paid for as a part of the two.5 GHz public sale, which wrapped up within the fall of 2022.

The 5G SALE Act (handed by the Senate this fall and now, by the Home of Representatives as nicely) would authorize the FCC to course of these licenses—nevertheless it doesn’t absolutely reinstate the regulator’s public sale authority.

Each the Home and the Senate have handed the invoice, which is now headed to President Joe Biden to be signed into regulation.

T-Cell US gained greater than 7,100 licenses in that public sale, at a value of about $304 million. Regardless of the dominance of T-Cell US as a profitable bidder, nonetheless, 63 certified bidders walked away with licenses. The FCC says that 77% of these profitable bidders certified as both small companies or entities which serve rural communities.

Aggressive Carriers Affiliation President and CEO Tim Donovan urged President Biden to swiftly signal the stopgap measure, and added that “CCA hopes this momentum will carry into Congress absolutely reinstating FCC spectrum public sale authority.”