Scott Patrick says NTIA’s top job is identifying 500 MHz of federal spectrum

NTIA’s Office of Spectrum Management Executive Director Scott Patrick said Oct. 27, 2026, at Silicon Valley Space Week’s Satellite Innovation track that the agency is treating the congressional order to find 500 MHz of federal spectrum as its highest priority, with the spectrum intended for commercial use.

Patrick spoke Tuesday during the “Regulators as Capacity Allocators” panel, which was part of Silicon Valley Space Week’s Satellite Innovation track. Brian Weimer, a Sheppard partner who leads the firm’s space and satellite practice, moderated the discussion. Patrick called 500 MHz a large portion of spectrum and said the deadline makes this work NTIA’s main focus at the moment.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Congress passed in July 2025, directs NTIA to locate 500 MHz of federal spectrum between 1.3 GHz and 10.5 GHz for commercial reallocation or sharing. The agency has to identify no fewer than 200 MHz by July 2027 and finish identifying all 500 MHz by July 2029.

Patrick said the agency is starting with bands that cost the least to clear, since clearing each band costs money. The agency wants to tackle the easiest lift possible under the mandate. Patrick said the 7 GHz band is easier to relocate because its incumbents mainly rely on point-to-point microwave links. He also pointed to the 1675–1695 MHz band as a candidate that has been ready for a long time.

Some candidate bands existed before the law passed, while for others NTIA held informal talks with federal agencies and potential stakeholders before choosing them. The agency is starting with the simplest bands and looking at ones federal partners had already discussed.

Karl Kensinger, who serves as special counsel at the FCC’s Space Bureau, described how the agencies divide the work on the same panel: the FCC licenses commercial stations while NTIA assigns spectrum for federal systems, and both agencies coordinate shared-band licenses. Kensinger said the FCC’s Spectrum Abundance proceedings cover many bands that regulators would have considered off limits 15 years ago. Kensinger spoke on the same panel as Patrick at Silicon Valley Space Week’s Satellite Innovation track.

Kensinger pointed to FCC authorizations under No. 4.4 of the ITU Radio Regulations. Those rules let operators use frequencies before formal allocation, provided they cause no interference and do not claim any protection. He also said that revising 25-year-old limits shielding geostationary satellites from non-geostationary transmissions could greatly expand usable capacity.

Companies running satellites that await federal-band work face a first checkpoint in July 2027, by which time NTIA must have identified 200 MHz. The agency must finish identifying all 500 MHz by July 2029 under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. “other things might not be getting as much attention,” Patrick said.

NTIA cleared a technical review on April 14, 2026, marking a milestone in its effort to repurpose the 2.7 GHz band for full-power commercial licensed use. “NTIA is executing on that mandate with urgency,” Arielle Roth said.

The 2.7 GHz band delivers strong coverage and capacity because its signals reach entire neighborhoods indoors and manage large contiguous channels for high-throughput uses. According to NTIA, the band is key to making sure the United States leads in 6G.

The President directed NTIA in December to complete its review of the 7.125-7.4 GHz band within 12 months and start assessing whether sections of 2.69-2.9 GHz and 4.4-4.94 GHz could exit federal use for full-power commercial licensed use. These directives from the President build on the five-year congressional mandate requiring NTIA to find 500 MHz of federal spectrum.

Incumbent federal agencies may receive funding from the Spectrum Relocation Fund (SRF) to cover relocation costs, but they must submit detailed relocation plans first. NTIA chairs the statutorily established SRF Technical Panel alongside OMB and FCC representatives. The panel signed off on the 2.7 GHz band relocation plans and forwarded them to OMB. The Office of Management and Budget will inform lawmakers of the approved plans and their cost estimates, starting a 60-day review by the Commerce and Appropriations Committees before funding is released.

Congress instructed NTIA to locate 500 megahertz of federal spectrum for commercial use within a five-year period, as part of broader efforts to ensure U.S. leadership in 6G. NOAA and the FAA are the two primary federal users of the 2.7 GHz band, and both will include spectrum repurposing in purchases of modernized radar systems for aviation safety and weather monitoring.

Arielle Roth, who serves as NTIA administrator, said Sept. 12, 2025, that President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” restored the FCC’s auction authority. Roth made the remarks as NTIA reported progress on identifying federal spectrum for auction. The law instructs NTIA to locate 500 MHz of federal spectrum for auction and to reallocate it as full-power commercial licensed use. Roth said she planned to tell the FCC that NTIA had identified the first 5 MHz of spectrum for auction.

The law requires the FCC to auction another 300 MHz of spectrum, and at least 100 MHz of that must be in the Upper C-band. This auction requirement exists alongside NTIA’s mandate to identify 500 MHz. Roth plans to write to FCC Chair Brendan Carr saying NTIA identified the first 5 MHz of federal spectrum for FCC auction and will study 15 MHz beside it in the 1675 MHz L band.

NTIA plans to review four targeted bands within the range Congress set: 7125-7400 MHz, 1680-1695 MHz, 2700-2900 MHz, and 4400-4940 MHz. Roth said these bands feature sweet spot propagation characteristics and could generate substantial auction revenues while modernizing federal operations. NTIA expects to move forward on all four bands within twelve months, which would beat its 200 MHz identification target.

Roth said NTIA will actively back the FCC’s efforts to auction the Upper C-band. The agency will support the FCC’s Upper C-band auction to maximize commercial spectrum cleared and pay for a one-time retrofit of aircraft altimeters for next-generation use.

Roth said NTIA wants the FCC to look at expanding innovative forms of spectrum sharing. She made the comments as NTIA works to identify spectrum in federal bands. Roth said satellite applications are growing faster than anticipated and regulators must respond proactively to demand.

NTIA is committed to expanding commercial access to satellite spectrum while taking federal user needs into account, and she talked about direct-to-device satellite technology and technology neutrality across programs. She said consumers want connections to work regardless of whether they come from terrestrial or satellite networks, and sufficient spectrum must be available.