STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI Re: Spectrum Frontiers Auction 101 (28 GHz) and Auction 102 (24 GHz), AU Docket No. 18-85. Today, we take another crucial step toward satisfying the ever-increasing demand for more spectrum and solidifying American leadership in 5G, the next generation of wireless connectivity. Specifically, we finalize the procedures for two spectrum auctions. The 28 GHz band auction will begin on November 14, and soon after its conclusion, the 24 GHz band auction will commence. The 1.55 gigahertz of spectrum in these two high bands will be critical in deploying 5G wireless, Internet of Things, and other advanced spectrum-based services. Maintaining leadership in wireless technologies is critical for our country; it will boost economic growth, job creation, and our global competitiveness. And given that the world is going wireless, it will dramatically improve the consumer experience, including in ways we can’t today anticipate. With the auction procedures we adopt today, we seek to promote competitive bidding, make it easier for applicants to participate, and assign high-band spectrum licenses as efficiently as possible. All of this will enable the Commission to get this valuable spectrum into the marketplace and put it to its highest valued use. This is the latest in a long line of FCC efforts to make high-band spectrum available for flexible wireless use—efforts like the 2017 and 2018 Spectrum Frontiers Orders. And we’re not stopping with these two auctions. In the second half of 2019, we intend to hold an auction of three more millimeter-wave spectrum bands: 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 47 GHz. Between that auction and the auctions for which we establish procedures today, we’ll push almost 5 gigahertz of spectrum into the commercial marketplace over the course of the next seventeen months. We’re also reforming our wireless infrastructure rules to ensure that the small-cell and fiber-based networks of the future can be built, for all the 5G spectrum in the world is pointless without 5G networks to make use of it. These are the kinds of aggressive actions we need to take to promote innovation, investment, and United States leadership in 5G. Many thanks to the staff who have contributed to this complicated item. From the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau: Erik Beith, Craig Bomberger, Steve Buenzow, Jonathan Campbell, Chas Eberle, Katie Hinton, Bill Huber, Angela Kung, Gary Michaels, Erik Salovaara, Linda Sanderson, John Schauble, Blaise Scinto, Martha Stancill, Joel Taubenblatt, and Margaret Wiener; from the International Bureau: Kim Cook, David Krech, and Susan O’Connell; Gail Glasser from the Office of the Managing Director; and from the Office of General Counsel: David Horowitz, Bill Richardson, and Anjali Singh.