Spectrum in North America: The Impact of WRC-23

According to a 2022 CTIA-commissioned study1, the U.S. is positioned thirteen out of fifteen leading global markets regarding available, licensed mid-band spectrum. Mid-band spectrum is tailor-made for 5G deployments by offering a sweet spot between coverage and capacity. The present lack of licensed mid-band spectrum is not expected to sufficiently improve in the next 5 years. Compared to its global counterparts, U.S. mid-band spectrum lags behind the five leading countries by 202 MHz. This deficit will grow to 520 MHz if no new spectrum is allocated by 2027. The current U.S. allocation for both low-band and high-band is more favorable. High band frequencies, referred to as millimeter wave (mmWave) offer large bandwidths that can carry sizable swaths of data with very low latency. As a tradeoff, high-band spectrum does not provide the coverage supported by mid- or low-band spectrum. Low-band spectrum offers the best coverage and indoor penetration (when compared to higher-band spectrum), but it lacks the greater bandwidth available in mid- and high-band spectrum