Title 47 — Telegraphs, Telephones, and RadiotelegraphsRelease 119-73not60

§1509 Spectrum Challenge Prize

Title 47 › Chapter 14— MAKING OPPORTUNITIES FOR BROADBAND INVESTMENT AND LIMITING EXCESSIVE AND NEEDLESS OBSTACLES TO WIRELESS › § 1509

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary must run prize contests, after talking with the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, when money for the contests is available. The contests must speed up making and selling technology that uses radio spectrum much more efficiently and can be deployed at low cost. The Secretary must set clear, measurable goals so everyone competes on the same terms and shows a real improvement over current technology. Prize competition — a contest run by the Secretary under subsection (c)(1). The Secretary may hire private groups to run the contests, ask DARPA, the Commission, NASA, the National Science Foundation, or other Federal agencies to help, and award no more than $5,000,000 in total to winners. Within 180 days after contest funds are available, the Commission must publish a technical paper with criteria to help design the contests. Congress may fund whatever sums are necessary to carry this out.

Full Legal Text

Title 47, §1509

Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)This section may be cited as the “Spectrum Challenge Prize Act”.

(b)In this section, the term “prize competition” means a prize competition conducted by the Secretary under subsection (c)(1).

(c)(1)The Secretary, in consultation with the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and the Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, shall, subject to the availability of funds for prize competitions under this section—

(A)conduct prize competitions to dramatically accelerate the development and commercialization of technology that improves spectrum efficiency and is capable of cost-effective deployment; and

(B)define a measurable set of performance goals for participants in the prize competitions to demonstrate their solutions on a level playing field while making a significant advancement over the current state of the art.

(2)In carrying out paragraph (1), the Secretary may—

(A)enter into a grant, contract, cooperative agreement, or other agreement with a private sector for-profit or nonprofit entity to administer the prize competitions;

(B)invite the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Commission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, or any other Federal agency to provide advice and assistance in the design or administration of the prize competitions; and

(C)award not more than $5,000,000, in the aggregate, to the winner or winners of the prize competitions.

(d)Not later than 180 days after the date on which funds for prize competitions are made available pursuant to this section, the Commission shall publish a technical paper on spectrum efficiency providing criteria that may be used for the design of the prize competitions.

(e)There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

47 U.S.C. § 1509

Title 47 — Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60