The Navigator

After years of heavy lobbying from the cable and wireless industry, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is on the verge of reallocating most of the spectrum that had been set aside for intelligent transportation systems including vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. While various automakers have been vocal in their support of V2X, the industry as a whole has only itself to blame for this development.

The FCC first allocated 75 MHz of spectrum in the 5.9-GHz band for ITS (intelligent transportation systems) use 20 years ago. But precious little has been done with that spectrum since then, as other uses of wireless technology have been gobbling up the airwaves. For years, many automakers, suppliers and regulators worked to develop standards for V2X communications and large-scale pilot programs continue to operate in a number of cities including Ann Arbor, Mich., and Tampa, Fla.