While Americans settle in for movie nights and Zoom calls, a new federal law quietly threatens to dismantle the quality of their home Wi-Fi networks. The Senate version of this legislation stripped away protections for essential unlicensed spectrum, particularly in the 6 GHz and CBRS bands that power everything from your living room internet to school networks and Tribal broadband systems.
Here’s the twist: the House had actually included safeguards for these Wi-Fi bands. But guess what happened during Senate negotiations? Poof. Gone. Deleted. Big wireless carriers got exactly what they wanted while the rest of us might soon wonder why Netflix keeps buffering.
The 6 GHz band isn’t just some technical jargon—it’s the backbone of newer high-speed Wi-Fi technologies. With portions potentially on the auction block, home users face a grim future of slower speeds, more interference, and frustratingly dropped connections. Wasn’t technology supposed to get better over time, not worse?
The future of your home Wi-Fi is being auctioned off to the highest bidder while your Netflix buffers in the background.
Major telecoms can now purchase mid-band spectrum previously dedicated to public, unlicensed Wi-Fi. And the rules are brutally one-sided: if your Wi-Fi interferes with their licensed operations, guess which service has to shut down? Yours. Not theirs.
The motivation behind this spectrum grab is painfully obvious. Congress needed to offset tax cuts and decided your internet quality was the perfect sacrificial lamb. Budget negotiations prioritized auction revenue over keeping Americans connected. Senator Ted Cruz’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act aims to generate approximately 70 billion dollars through these spectrum auctions. How convenient.
AT&T and wireless industry lobbyists shaped the entire process, turning public airwaves into private profit centers while home users get left with the digital scraps. Public Knowledge has warned lawmakers that auctioning this unlicensed spectrum will significantly degrade internet access for millions of Americans. The FCC’s spectrum auction authority was reinstated, but at what cost?
The regulatory consequences are clear: your home Wi-Fi gets zero protection against interference. Zero. Meanwhile, big carriers enjoy iron-clad regulatory shields for their services.
References
- https://publicknowledge.org/ted-cruz-wants-to-sell-your-wi-fi-to-att-this-will-make-your-wi-fi-suck-and-your-mobile-bill-higher/
- https://broadbandbreakfast.com/wireless-industry-celebrates-spectrum-victory-as-congress-sends-big-budget-bill-to-trump/
- https://www.k12dive.com/news/senate-approves-repeal-of-e-rate-wi-fi-hotspots-for-schools-libraries/747572/
- https://publicknowledge.org/how-president-trumps-budget-bill-jeopardizes-wi-fi-and-how-we-got-here/
- https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1
