STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI Re: Incentive Auction of Upper Microwave Flexible Use Service Licenses in the Upper 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz Bands for Next-Generation Wireless Services, AU Docket No. 19-59 December 10 is a great day for many reasons. In addition to being just fifteen days from Christmas, it’s the birthday of mathematician and computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, the publication date of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and National Lager Day. And for my friends in Argentina, where I had the pleasure of visiting last week, December 10, 1983 transformed their country from dictatorship to democracy, with the inauguration of the “father of modern democracy in Argentina,” President Raúl Alfonsín. Here in the United States, December 10, 2019 will mark another breakthrough in U.S. leadership on 5G. Three months ago, I joined the President at the White House to announce that, on that date, the Commission will begin an auction of the upper 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz bands, making available more spectrum for 5G. Auction 103 will be the third auction of spectrum for 5G this year and the largest in American history, releasing 3,400 megahertz of spectrum into the commercial marketplace for 5G deployment. In my view, 5G could be one of the great moonshots of this generation. Think about a world in which speed, capacity, and lag times are effectively no longer constraints on wireless innovation. 5G could enable new services and applications that could revolutionize healthcare, transportation, agriculture, education, and many other parts of our economy and society. And it will open the door to so many other possibilities. How fast these possibilities are realized, or if they are realized at all, will depend in part on whether we enable them to happen. The FCC is doing its part to promote U.S leadership in 5G wireless communications. In total, our auctions this year will free up for the commercial marketplace almost five gigahertz of spectrum for flexible use. That’s more spectrum than is currently used for mobile broadband by all mobile broadband providers in the United States combined. And with today’s 2.5 GHz item, the FCC will also make valuable mid-band spectrum available soon for 5G. Speaking of, it is equal parts ironic and amusing that some continue to claim that we’re doing too little to free up mid-band spectrum, but then oppose every single initiative we’ve undertaken to do just that. You can’t demand action on mid-band spectrum and then oppose rules that make it possible to deploy 5G in the 3.5 GHz band. You can’t demand action on mid-band spectrum and then take the position that we must wait for Congress to act before we move forward on the C-band. And you can’t demand action on mid-band spectrum and then vote against an auction next year that would make 2.5 GHz spectrum available for commercial use. Or rather, you can do all of these things—but then the inescapable inference is that your real commitment is to political gamesmanship, not actual progress on mid-band spectrum. Thank you to the dedicated staff of the Office of Economics and Analytics, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and the Office of General Counsel who have worked tirelessly to chart a course for American leadership in 5G. From the Office of Economics and Analytics, Margaret Wiener, Erik Salovaara, Mark Montano, Martha Stancill, Erik Beith, William Huber, Craig Bomberger, Linda Sanderson, Jill Goldberger, Shabnam Javid, Giulia McHenry, Patrick DeGraba, Debbie Smith, and Sue Sterner; from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Donald Stockdale, Dana Shaffer, Joel Taubenblatt, Blaise Scinto, Simon Banyai, Jennifer Tomchin, Stephen Buenzow, Erin Fitzgerald, Jonathan Campbell, and Cecilia Sulhoff; and from the Office of General Counsel, Douglas Klein, David Horowitz, and William Richardson.