The FCC wants to hold an auction of spectrum in the 1.6 GHz band in 2028, a senior NTIA official said, signalling that the US auction pipeline — stalled since the record-breaking AWS-3 re-auction — may be slowly reopening.

The disclosure came from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Commerce Department agency that manages federal spectrum and coordinates commercial assignments with the FCC. The 1.6 GHz band, also referred to in US policy discussions as part of the lower mid-band range, sits close to frequencies used internationally for satellite and government systems, which explains why NTIA, rather than the FCC alone, is central to its commercial future.

For US mobile operators, the timing matters. Carriers have not had access to significant new licensed mid-band spectrum at auction since the FCC's auction authority lapsed in March 2023, when Congress failed to extend the agency's sale mandate. The agency regained limited authority and completed the AWS-3 re-auction in 2025, which raised roughly $9 billion, but that sale cleared leftover inventory rather than opening new ground. A 1.6 GHz auction in 2028 would be the first genuinely new mid-band offering in half a decade.

The 1.6 GHz range is technically attractive for wide-area 5G coverage. Frequencies below 2 GHz propagate further than the 3.45 GHz and C-band holdings operators bought in recent years, so carriers could use them to deepen coverage in suburban and rural markets at lower site density. That positioning puts a future auction in tension with existing users of the band, which historically include federal operations and satellite services — the reason the band has stayed out of commercial hands until now.

NTIA's role in the announcement reflects the machinery of US spectrum policy. Under the 2024 agreement that restored the FCC's auction authority, the two agencies must coordinate on identifying bands where federal users can be relocated or shared arrangements can be engineered before commercial rules are written. No auction can proceed until the FCC completes a band plan, sets licensing rules, and runs a formal comment cycle — a process that typically takes 18 to 24 months once a band is formally proposed.

A 2028 target therefore implies the FCC would need to launch its rulemaking no later than 2026 to stay on schedule, and any slippage in federal transition planning would push the sale toward the end of the decade.

The commercial stakes are considerable. Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile all face mid-band deployment cycles maturing toward the end of the decade, and each has told investors that additional low- and mid-band spectrum is a capital priority. Dish Network's EchoStar, which holds spectrum across several bands but limited sub-2 GHz depth, could also be a bidder depending on its financial position by 2028.

An NTIA official making the timeline public, rather than an FCC commissioner, is itself a signal: the band's feasibility depends on federal incumbents agreeing to vacate or share, and NTIA is telling industry that those conversations are far enough along to put a date on the calendar.

Nothing is guaranteed. Congressional approval of auction authority extensions, incumbent transition funding and inter-agency coordination have each delayed past sales. But the 2028 target, articulated by the agency that controls the band's federal fate, gives US operators their first concrete new-spectrum milestone since the auction blackout began — and suggests the pipeline discussion has moved from whether to sell to when.