Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said in an interview Thursday that “we are going to have [a restoration of the FCC’s lapsed] auction authority and a spectrum pipeline” in the coming budget reconciliation package, as talks appeared to be moving closer to a compromise headed into the weekend. Meanwhile, House GOP leaders are coalescing around a deal that would pair a 10-year renewal of the FCC’s auction mandate with a 450 MHz pipeline of airwaves that the commission can repurpose for 5G use, said several communications sector lobbyists who are closely monitoring negotiations.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Monday night called House Commerce Committee Republicans’ budget reconciliation proposal “encouraging” but stopped short of backing the measure. House Commerce’s proposal, which the panel will mark up Tuesday, would restore the FCC’s lapsed auction authority through the end of FY 2034 and tee up 600 MHz of bandwidth for sale within six years of enactment.

The U.S. has a variety of paths to reach 600 MHz of high-power spectrum for carriers' use, the often-discussed goal of Congress, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr told reporters Tuesday following remarks at CTIA’s 5G Summit. The challenges that China presents also dominated discussions.

With a 4-0 vote, FCC commissioners on Monday approved an order and Further NPRM aimed at spurring greater use of the 37 GHz band, which the Biden administration targeted for repurposing (see 2412030057). As expected, the FCC tweaked the item (see 2504250051), led by changes sought by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved two applications to assign 600 MHz spectrum from Channel 51 to T-Mobile. The licenses cover the Chicago and New Orleans markets. “We find that the proposed license assignments have a low likelihood of competitive harm and would serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” said an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. EchoStar opposed the transfers, but repeated arguments “that we have addressed in prior orders consenting to multiple similar license assignment transactions,” the bureau said.

Grain Management will buy all of T-Mobile's 800 MHz spectrum in exchange for cash and Grain's 600 MHz spectrum portfolio, the companies announced Thursday night. Grain confirmed it plans to make the spectrum available “to U.S. utilities to support mission-critical communications, improve grid resilience, and enhance emergency response capabilities.”

T-Mobile wants to sell hundreds of 800 MHz licenses to Grain Management, partially in exchange for 600 MHz spectrum. Grain, in turn, plans to work with utilities and others to deploy services on the 800 MHz spectrum.

Dish Wireless parent EchoStar is interested in leasing spectrum to smaller carriers and tribes, the Rural Wireless Association told members Thursday. Leases are available “on a first-come, first-serve basis” in the 600 MHz, 700 MHz, citizens broadband radio service, AWS-3, AWS-4 and AWS H-block bands, RWA said. “EchoStar is making its spectrum licenses available for lease pursuant to conditions imposed by the FCC in a granted extension request of its final 5G construction milestones,” the group said.

UScellular filed a response to a December data request from the Wireless Bureau (see 2412270031) probing T-Mobile’s proposed purchase of much of UScellular’s wireless business, including some spectrum. Parts of the response were redacted. “UScellular’s spectrum and network cost challenges have limited UScellular’s relative competitive presence in its footprint,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-286. “These limitations have resulted in UScellular lagging behind its competitors and being increasingly unable to catch up to the network quality they offer.” The carrier noted that it has “substantially less spectrum depth than its competitors within its footprint,” with about 70 MHz “of aggregable spectrum below 4 GHz -- half or less than” than its biggest rivals. The company’s 600, 700 and 850 MHz licenses “cannot be aggregated and used as efficiently as possible due to mobile device limitations,” the filing said. While its devices “have the hardware to support the 600 MHz, 700 MHz, and 850 MHz bands individually, they generally lack the hardware (such as more antennas) to support spectrum aggregation.” The company said it also holds “substantial non-contiguous blocks of spectrum, particularly in the 700 MHz, AWS, and PCS bands.”

T-Mobile disputed arguments by EchoStar, parent of Dish Wireless, that T-Mobile’s proposed buy of spectrum and other assets from UScellular is designed in part to keep other companies from adding to their 600 MHz holdings (see 2501290019). EchoStar is wrong that T-Mobile is pursuing “a foreclosure strategy” as part of the transaction, said a heavily redacted filing posted Monday in docket 24-286. The transaction would include T-Mobile gaining only a “put/call option” to use a small number of 600 MHz licenses, it said. “As EchoStar well knows, a put/call option is not a cognizable interest under well-established FCC precedent, nor a plausible foreclosure strategy given the very small amount of spectrum subject to the option.”