Why It Matters
The airwaves that carry your cell phone signal, guide a missile to its target, and keep a Navy destroyer's radar humming are all drawn from the same finite resource: the electromagnetic spectrum. As commercial demand for radio frequency spectrum allocation has exploded alongside 5G networks and wireless broadband, the federal government faces mounting pressure to free up spectrum currently reserved for military use. But a new report from the Government Accountability Office warns that the two agencies responsible for managing that transition, the Department of Defense and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, are fumbling the collaboration that makes it possible.
The GAO report, released June 5, found that DOD and NTIA left private-sector stakeholders in the dark during two critical spectrum repurposing studies, creating enough uncertainty that industry participants may simply stop showing up to future proceedings. For a process that can stretch on for years, that disengagement could stall decisions worth billions of dollars to wireless carriers and technology companies, while leaving unresolved questions about whether military systems and commercial networks can safely share the same bands.
The Big Picture
The electromagnetic spectrum is not expandable. Every frequency band used by a radar system is a band unavailable to a mobile carrier, and vice versa. DOD relies on spectrum for communications, radar, and weapons systems across all branches of the military. At the same time, private-sector demand for spectrum has surged in recent years, driven by the build-out of 5G infrastructure and the proliferation of connected devices.
That tension has forced a policy reckoning. The question is not whether some DOD spectrum assignments will eventually be repurposed for commercial use, but how, when, and under what conditions. The answer requires sustained collaboration between the military, federal regulators, and the wireless industry, a process that NTIA spectrum sharing studies are designed to facilitate.
NTIA, housed within the Commerce Department, manages spectrum use among federal agencies and serves as the primary interface between the government and the private sector on spectrum policy. When DOD and NTIA conduct repurposing studies, they are essentially asking the wireless industry to help determine whether military and commercial users can coexist on the same frequencies, and at what cost to each.
The GAO Report
The GAO examined two specific studies. The first, a major 2023 study, focused on the spectrum bands DOD currently uses for radar. The second was a 2024 spectrum-sharing report.
In the 2023 study, DOD engaged with both federal and nonfederal stakeholders but never clearly explained to industry participants whether or how their input would be evaluated or used in the final decision-making process. According to the GAO, some stakeholders reported that this lack of transparency left them uncertain about whether their participation had any real value.
The 2024 study presented a different but related problem. In that case, DOD and NTIA did not develop documented plans or establish formal processes to guide their joint work. The absence of a structured, written approach meant there was no shared roadmap for how responsibilities would be divided, how the study would be conducted, or how conclusions would be reached.
Taken together, the GAO found that while DOD generally follows leading collaboration practices in its routine spectrum coordination through an NTIA committee, including defined roles, established processes, and regular communication, it fell short in the specific context of these repurposing studies. Both agencies failed to consistently provide transparency to external stakeholders or document their internal processes.
Political Stakes
Spectrum repurposing studies can take years to complete, and their outcomes shape how billions of dollars in wireless infrastructure investment are planned and deployed. If industry participants conclude that their input is ignored or that the process is too opaque to be worth engaging with, they may pull back from future studies.
The GAO was direct on this point: without addressing stakeholder uncertainty, nonfederal participants may decide not to participate in future DOD and NTIA-led studies, even though their input is valuable in determining how to repurpose spectrum effectively.
That kind of disengagement would undermine the entire premise of commercial spectrum sharing, which depends on industry expertise to assess technical feasibility and economic tradeoffs. A process that proceeds without meaningful private-sector input risks producing outcomes that neither serve military readiness nor unlock the commercial potential of underutilized bands.
The Bottom Line
The GAO issued three recommendations, all of which are currently open. Two are directed to the Secretary of Defense, who is asked to ensure the DOD Chief Information Officer develops policies requiring each spectrum repurposing study to include a documented approach that is shared with relevant stakeholders. That approach must explain how DOD considers and evaluates external input, and must also lay out the processes used to conduct the study and how responsibilities are assigned within and between agencies.
The third recommendation is directed to the NTIA Administrator, who is asked to develop a parallel policy requiring the same kind of documented, process-driven approach for future spectrum repurposing studies, developed in consultation with DOD and other federal participants.
Both DOD and NTIA agreed with their respective recommendations. Whether that agreement translates into durable policy changes in spectrum management, particularly amid broader debates about spectrum policy reform and the future of DOD's frequency holdings, remains to be seen. The GAO will track implementation of all three recommendations until they are formally closed.
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