LIVE FROM MWC25 LAS VEGAS: CTIA CEO and president Ajit Pai (pictured, left) and Verizon Business CEO Kyle Malady (pictured, right) urged the industry to move quickly on utilising additional spectrum made available through the passing of President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill in July.

Aside of granting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the ability to once again hold spectrum auctions, the bill also included a provision to provide access to the 800MHz band.

Pai channelled a line from Star Wars character Yoda when he implored regulators “to do, not try” when it came to the telecom industry gaining access to more spectrum.

“Spectrum is a key driver of innovation, not just for the mobile industry, but for adjacent technologies like artificial intelligence, the cloud, fixed broadband, and much more,” he said during his keynote address. “History tells us that when America leads in wireless, it doesn’t just change industry, it changes the world.”

Pai was chair of the FCC during President Trump’s first term, which he stated is when the US led the world in 5G development.

“The president bet on wireless innovation back then, and the wireless industry delivered,” he said. ”Fast forward to today, China leads in 5G availability, and America has fallen to third.

“But as a nation, we fell behind, because we did not act with urgency.”

He said the passing of the bill “is a clear repudiation of policy inertia that we’ve seen in recent years”.

“We once again have a chance to empower American entrepreneurs, and to benefit wireless consumers,” Pai explained. “And you’ll notice that I’m not saying that we will empower entrepreneurs. It’s simply that we have a chance to empower them. And that’s because progress is not the same as endpoints.

“That is to say, identifying bands and setting an ambitious target is not the same as making spectrum available.”

He credited Trump and Republican members of congress for passing the bill but stated it is up to the telecoms industry to “convert that potential to reality”.

“We need to execute,” he said.

Mission-critical
Malady, who joined Pai on stage, echoed some of the same sentiments. He said when operators use licenced spectrum CIOs across the healthcare and manufacturing sectors are more willing to bet on mission-critical applications.

“Since day one, carriers have always been worried about capacity,” said Malady, who is also chair of CTIA. “And if you give us enough capacity, then we can build ecosystems and platforms that allow small businesses to be able to grow.

“It’s super important that we got the authority back. It’s super important that we got 800MHz. But you [Pai] said it rightly. We need to execute now.”

Malady stated the industry and government need to figure out the best way to leverage the 800MHz spectrum while also developing a long-term plan.

“We kind of live a little bit hand-in-mouth as an industry,” he said. “We need to figure out what it’s going to be ten, 20, 30 years from now so we’re not just kind of always scrambling at the last minute.”