radio bandwidth

A spokesperson for the FCC, which allocates radio bandwidth including the 5G spectrum, said this week that the agency “continues to work productively with the FAA to ensure the safe and swift deployment of new technologies” and is “optimistic” that it will resolve outstanding issues.

Radio bandwidth was once allocated by “beauty contests” in which operators made a case for why they should get it — leading to intense lobbying.

But owing to insufficient funding and a row with the F.C.C., which Amtrak said had been slow to approve the use of the requisite radio bandwidth, its actual implementation has been piecemeal.

“We can now do huge chunks of radio bandwidth all at one go,” he said.

Republican congressional aides said that the House bill passed this week doesn’t cut money from rail safety programs, and said a lack of radio bandwidth, not a lack of funding, is hampering the braking system’s implementation.