The Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2015 (Act) was enacted to (among other things) repurpose spectrum from federal to commercial licensed and unlicensed uses. The Act directed FCC to submit a report to Congress analyzing the FCC’s 3550-3700 MHz band (3.5 GHz band) rules from 2015 and to promote and identify at least 1 gigahertz of shared spectrum between 6 GHz and 57 GHz. The Report provides a broad overview of the FCC’s 3.5 GHz rules which were initially adopted in 2015 but then changed in October 2018 following a new rulemaking prompted by T-Mobile and CTIA petitions for rulemaking. The Report also describes progress on development of the Spectrum Access Systems (SASs) that will administer the dynamic spectrum sharing in the 3.5 GHz band. Additionally, the Report describes the 6 GHz rulemaking proceeding that was initiated in October 2018 to consider unlicensed and other uses. The Report also describes the FCC’s ongoing Spectrum Frontiers proceeding to reallocate spectrum above 24 GHz, including licensed fixed and mobile use in the 24 GHz, 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz bands, as well as unlicensed use in the 64-71 GHz band.
