ICLE’s Westling: FCC Should Move Quickly on Upper C-Band Spectrum
WASHINGTON (June 30, 2026) — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should move quickly to put Upper C-band spectrum to work for American consumers, International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) Senior Scholar Jeffrey Westling said today.
The FCC announced it will vote on rules to auction 160 megahertz of Upper C-band spectrum, from 3.98 GHz to 4.14 GHz, for flexible terrestrial wireless use. The vote would advance a congressional mandate under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act requiring the FCC to auction at least 100 megahertz of the band by July 4, 2027.
For years, much of the Upper C-band has remained underused, even as demand for mid-band spectrum has surged, Westling said. Mid-band airwaves are especially valuable because they combine broad coverage with high capacity—essential inputs for next-generation networks, mobile broadband, and increasingly data-intensive artificial-intelligence applications.
ICLE has long argued that spectrum policy should focus not only on how airwaves are allocated, but how quickly they can move to their highest-valued use. When valuable spectrum sits idle, consumers pay the price through slower service, less capacity, and delayed investment.
By advancing this item, and working with the aviation industry to protect altimeters in the neighboring 4.2 GHz to 4.4 GHz band, the FCC is laying the groundwork to put these frequencies into commercial use quickly, Westling said.
“The Commission has taken a range of actions to open the full C-band to flexible use, but the Upper C-band has sat on the sidelines for too long,” Westling said. “Today’s announcement is a critical step toward getting these frequencies into operators’ networks quickly. Paired with the Lower C-band, operators will have access to a contiguous 440-megahertz block of spectrum—the foundation for next-generation wireless networks, applications, and services.”
To arrange an interview with Westling, contact Jim Fellinger at [email protected].
About ICLE
About ICLE The International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center that promotes the use of law and economics methodology to inform public policy debates. ICLE produces academic research, policy papers, regulatory comments, and public commentary on a wide range of issues at the intersection of law, economics, and technology. For more information, visit laweconcenter.org.