Good morning
As a clarion call to Americans, the release of the mid-band spectrum for commercial use doesn’t exactly make their hearts beat faster.
Making it clear that this is the optimal frequency for 5G networks will get some heads nodding. If you then explain that the US has limited commercial access to this spectrum compared to other countries because it sets aside more of it for defense purposes and delegates responsibility for access to multiple agencies, more people agree that the US is at risk , falling behind when using 5G Networks cannot support growth in everything from autonomous vehicles to AI. And even more might understand it if you argue that the status quo could cost U.S. consumers a lot more money.
That’s what AT&T CEO John Stankey said argues in this comment we published yesterday. Does he have a vested interest in the private sector having access to more of this precious resource? Secure. But he makes a compelling case for Congress and a new Trump administration to make it happen. (Earlier this year, the Senate authorized the Federal Communications Commission’s auction authority to do so expired for the first timewhich adds a whole new level of existential anxiety that has yet to be addressed.)
I spoke with Stankey yesterday at the Fortune Global Forum. Here is a video of our conversation. “We went from being first, second or third in the world to 14thTh among developed countries at present,” he said. “We are slipping and we have to do the right thing again.”
Telecommunications companies have spent billions building the wireless infrastructure to support their 5G networks. (AT&T says it has invested more than $145 billion (between 2019 and 2023.) Stankey and his colleagues argue that the industry needs policy clarity and access to spectrum to continue making these investments. But Pentagon officials argue that they need to secure military use of such frequencies for activities such as drone detection before allowing commercial access. And, as Stankey and I discussedthere are also difficult decisions about how to operate all of these new technologies.
It’s a fascinating topic, one of many we discussed over the two days of our Fortune Global Forum, which ended yesterday. (You can see A summary of other important conversations can be found here.) Next year we will bring together leaders from the world’s largest and most innovative companies for the Fortune Global Forum 2025 in Riyadh. His Excellency Fahd bin Abdulmohsan Al-Rasheed spoke about the partnership after the catch a football throw from Tom Brady yesterday. Here is a video from my conversation with Al-Rasheed about the extent of change in Saudi Arabia at the moment.
More news below.
Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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