03Who owns the airwaves

The short version: Nobody owns the radio spectrum outright; governments manage it, and treaties coordinate it across borders. In the US, the FCC manages spectrum for businesses, state and local governments and the public, while NTIA manages it for federal agencies, and many bands are shared. Regulators first decide which kind of service may use a band (allocation), then give specific users permission to use specific frequencies (assignment), increasingly by auction: the C-band auction that closed in January 2021 drew over $80.9 billion in gross bids. In the US, your Wi-Fi router needs no license at all under FCC Part 15, on the condition that it causes no harmful interference and puts up with any it receives.

Who owns the radio spectrum?

What you see: News stories about governments "selling the airwaves," or a carrier "buying spectrum."

What is bought and sold is permission, not property. Spectrum rules work in two steps:

• Allocation decides what kind of service may use a band: broadcasting, mobile phones, radar, satellites, amateur radio and so on.
• Assignment gives a specific station or licensee permission to use a specific frequency within that allocation.

US rules require frequency assignments to follow the allocation table, with listed exceptions.²² The UK spells out the same two steps in law: Ofcom must publish a UK Plan for Frequency Authorisation showing which frequencies are "allocated, for what purposes, and which are available for assignment."²¹

The formal definitions come from the ITU Radio Regulations, which US rules repeat in 47 CFR 2.1. An allocation is the entry of a frequency band in the Table of Frequency Allocations for use by one or more radio services under specified conditions. An allotment is the entry of a channel in an agreed plan, adopted by a competent conference, for use by one or more administrations in identified countries or areas. An assignment is an authorization given by an administration for a radio station to use a frequency or channel under specified conditions.²³

An allocation can be split between services ranked by priority. In the US table, primary services are printed in capital letters and secondary services in normal type. A secondary station must not cause harmful interference to a primary station and cannot claim protection from interference caused by one.¹⁹

What is the difference between the FCC and NTIA?

What you see: Two agencies' names on the same spectrum news story, often disagreeing.

The US runs two allocation tables side by side. The Federal Table is administered by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), part of the Commerce Department, for federal government users such as the military and federal agencies. The non-Federal Table is administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under the Communications Act of 1934, for everyone else.¹⁹ Together they make up the US Table of Frequency Allocations, in which a band can be federal-only, non-federal-only or shared between the two.¹⁹

The split matters whenever the country wants to move spectrum from government use to commercial use. A dispute over the 3.1-3.45 GHz band is part of the story of why Congress let the FCC's auction authority lapse in 2023 (see below).²⁴

What is the US frequency allocation chart?

What you see: A poster covered in hundreds of colored blocks, often on the wall of a radio shop, a classroom or an engineer's office.

It is NTIA's wall chart of the US Table of Frequency Allocations, which is set out in 47 CFR 2.106 and described in 47 CFR 2.105.¹⁹ Each color stands for a type of service, and each block shows which services share a slice of the spectrum. It is the best single picture of who uses the air in the US.

As of October 2026, the current edition is dated September 2025 and uses data as of March 2025; NTIA publishes it as a free PDF on ntia.gov.²⁵

What is the ITU and what does it do?

What you see: "ITU" or "ITU-R" in footnotes of spectrum rules, or in the news when countries argue over satellite orbits.

Radio waves ignore borders, so countries coordinate through the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency with 194 member governments and over 1,000 companies and organizations as members.¹ It maintains the Radio Regulations, which the ITU calls "the international treaty" governing the radio spectrum and both geostationary and non-geostationary satellite orbits.²⁶ The 2024 edition is published online in all six UN languages.¹ The orbits themselves are covered in satellites.

The Radio Regulations divide the world into regions with their own allocation tables. The US table is based on the ITU Region 2 table, which covers the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands; Guam and American Samoa fall in Region 3.¹⁹ Each country fits its national rules inside this framework. Australia, for example, follows the ITU Radio Regulations and must avoid harmful interference to other countries' services that comply with them.⁷

US rules restate the ITU's three regions in 47 CFR 2.104, using three lines that run from pole to pole. Line B runs down the Atlantic (along 10°W and later 20°W), line C runs through the Bering Strait and across the Pacific (ending along 120°W), and line A runs along 40°E and then 60°E. Region 2, between lines B and C, is the Americas; Region 1, between lines A and B, takes in Europe and Africa and also, by name, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and several Caucasus and Central Asian countries; Region 3, between lines C and A, covers the rest.²⁷ The ITU describes Region 3 as "the rest of Asia and most of Oceania."²⁸

When is the next World Radiocommunication Conference?

What you see: Headlines about "WRC-23" or "WRC-27," usually tied to 5G, 6G or satellite internet.

A World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) is where the treaty gets rewritten. WRCs meet every three to four years to review and revise the Radio Regulations, on an agenda set by the ITU Council.²⁶

As of October 2026, WRC-27 is a year away. A WRC decision does not reach your phone directly: each country then has to write the change into its own rules.

Why does the government auction airwaves?

What you see: A carrier announcing it has "won" licenses in an FCC auction, with a price in the billions.

Congress first gave it authority to auction licenses in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-66, section 6002), originally set to expire on September 30, 1998.²⁹ The argument for auctions is that a bidding price, rather than an administrative decision, sorts out who gets a license; the government also collects the proceeds, as the budget figures below show.

The first auction, for ten nationwide narrowband PCS licenses, ran in July 1994. It took five days, used a simultaneous multiple-round ascending format, and raised about $617 million.³⁰ Auctions have grown since:

These are reported trade-press figures; the FCC's own auction pages give the official net and gross totals.

Why did the FCC lose its auction authority?

What you see: Stories from 2023-2025 about the FCC being unable to hold spectrum auctions.

Congress renewed the FCC's auction authority several times after 1993, but on March 9, 2023 it lapsed.²⁹ It was the first lapse since 1993, and it came amid a dispute over the 3.1-3.45 GHz band; 2024 was the first full year the FCC had no auction authority at all.²⁴ The lapse even stranded licenses T-Mobile had already won in Auction 108, until the 5G SALE Act required the FCC to issue them by March 18, 2024.²⁴

Authority was restored by Public Law 119-21, the FY2025 budget reconciliation law known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," signed on July 4, 2025. It now runs through September 30, 2034.²⁹³¹ The law also set a pipeline of at least 800 MHz of spectrum to be sold:³¹

Sources disagree on the details. Light Reading's summary of the law gave different figures (600 MHz, a range of 1.3-10 GHz and 3- and 6-year deadlines); the Congressional Research Service report and the Wiley law firm's analysis agree with the version in the table.²⁴²⁹³¹ The Congressional Budget Office projected more than $85 billion in offsetting receipts from the reauthorization over FY2025-FY2034.²⁹ Separately, an auction of the remaining AWS-3 spectrum, required by the FY2025 defense authorization act (Public Law 118-159), was scheduled to start on June 2, 2026.²⁹

That auction, Auction 113, closed on June 23, 2026 with $3,572,889,200 in gross bids for 200 licenses, won by seven bidders, according to the FCC's closing notice of June 26, 2026.³² On July 22, 2026 the FCC adopted rules for an auction of 160 MHz of upper C-band spectrum at 3.98-4.14 GHz; Light Reading reported it was on track to close by the July 2027 statutory deadline, without a confirmed start date.³³

What does "FCC Part 15" on my device mean?

What you see: A label or settings screen reading "This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules," usually beside an FCC ID.

It means the device is one of the low-power gadgets anyone can use without a radio license. Part 15 of the FCC's rules lets manufacturers build such devices; the FCC's rules for low-power unlicensed operation date back to November 1938, and since June 2000 private Telecommunication Certification Bodies have been able to certify devices on the FCC's behalf.¹⁶

The trade-off is written into the rule. Under 47 CFR 15.5, a Part 15 device:³⁴

• has no vested or recognizable right to any frequency;
• may operate only on the condition that it causes no harmful interference;
• must accept interference from licensed stations, from other devices and from industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) equipment;
• must stop operating if the FCC notifies the operator that it is causing harmful interference.

In practice, that is why, under US rules, your Wi-Fi has no recourse when a neighbor's network or a microwave oven crowds it: the rules never promised it a clear channel. The unlicensed section covers what lives in these bands.

What are ISM bands, and why do so many gadgets share them?

What you see: Wi-Fi that slows down when the microwave oven runs, or a list of "2.4 GHz" and "5 GHz" networks in your phone's settings.

ISM bands are slices of spectrum set aside for industrial, scientific and medical equipment that uses radio energy for something other than communication, such as heating food. Unlicensed radios share some of them. The US rule for frequency-hopping and digitally modulated unlicensed systems, 47 CFR 15.247, covers three bands:³⁵

Frequency hopping and digital modulation are the technology families that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi belong to, which is why these bands are crowded with consumer gear. Because Part 15 devices must accept interference from ISM equipment, when ISM equipment such as a microwave oven drowns out your Wi-Fi, the rules side with the oven.³⁴

The formal US list of ISM frequencies, in 47 CFR 18.301, has eleven center frequencies, each with a set tolerance: 6.78, 13.56, 27.12 and 40.68 MHz; 915 MHz (plus or minus 13 MHz); 2450 MHz (plus or minus 50 MHz); 5800 MHz (plus or minus 75 MHz); and 24.125, 61.25, 122.50 and 245.00 GHz.³⁶ Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz and 6 GHz ranges also runs under a separate rule: 47 CFR 15.403 defines Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) devices as radios using wideband digital modulation in 5.15-5.35 GHz, 5.47-5.895 GHz and 5.925-7.125 GHz.³⁷

What is 6 GHz Wi-Fi, and is it legal?

What you see: A router or phone advertising "Wi-Fi 6E" or "Wi-Fi 7," or a network name ending in "6G" in your list.

Yes, in the US it is legal and unlicensed. On April 23, 2020 the FCC opened 1,200 MHz of spectrum at 5.925-7.125 GHz for unlicensed use.³⁸ It came with two tiers:³⁸

The band is not empty: it is used by existing licensed services, which the rules protect. An AFC system is a database that tells each standard-power access point which channels it can use at its location without interfering with those incumbents.³⁸ Low-power indoor units do not use AFC; keeping them indoors and at low power limits how far their signals travel, thanks to the same building entry loss described in Radio in plain words.

In Boston

Every transmitter in Boston works under the arrangement described above. The city is in ITU Region 2, so the US table built on the Region 2 table applies; the FCC licenses the city's commercial, public safety and broadcast users, and NTIA handles federal government users.¹⁹ A Boston household's Wi-Fi router and other unlicensed gadgets run under the same Part 15 conditions as anywhere else in the country.³⁴

For how city agencies use licensed radio for 911 and dispatch, see https://works.cold.fyi/911/.

Elsewhere in the world

Every country manages its own spectrum inside the ITU framework, through its own regulator and allocation table.

The US split between a federal manager (NTIA) and a civil one (FCC) is written into its own rules.¹⁹ 6 GHz Wi-Fi is not the same everywhere. The US opened the whole 5.925-7.125 GHz band in 2020,³⁸ but other regions have taken different approaches.

In the UK, Wi-Fi already uses 5925-6425 MHz. In a statement of July 20, 2026, Ofcom decided to split the upper band: 6425-6585 MHz becomes a Wi-Fi priority portion for license-exempt use, including low-power indoor use, while in 6585-7125 MHz mobile has priority and Wi-Fi is allowed only under AFC control. The regulations to extend Wi-Fi into 6425-6585 MHz were still in draft, out for consultation, at the time of that statement.⁴¹

Canada's ISED opened the whole 5925-7125 MHz band to license-exempt use in May 2021, according to an industry summary of its decision.⁴² At WRC-23, countries agreed that those wishing to use the band for mobile (IMT) may consider 6425-7125 MHz in Region 1 or 7025-7125 MHz in Region 3, with protection for existing services such as satellite, and kept room for national choices between Wi-Fi and mobile.²⁸

Report an error in this section