The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-0 on Thursday, October 29, to let drones use the 800 MHz Cellular band, ending a 1991 airborne ban that kept unmanned aircraft off 50 MHz of licensed, nationwide, low-band spectrum. Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty approved the Report and Order, FCC 26-72, at the agency’s October open meeting in Washington.

The order opens the band to drone command, control, communication and payload links, as proposed in the draft DroneXL covered on October 9. Routine flight beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) still depends on the FAA’s Part 108 rule. Federal law requires that rule by December 7, and it has not appeared in the Federal Register.

The FCC Has Not Yet Posted the Adopted 800 MHz Order

The FCC had not posted the adopted text of FCC 26-72 by late Thursday morning, so any changes from the October 8 draft are not public. The draft set the effective date at 30 days after Federal Register publication, and the FCC’s release gives no date.

The FCC’s release on the vote says the airborne restriction “is no longer necessary as applied to unmanned aircraft systems” because modern networks can keep drones from interfering with them. The 1991 ban was written to stop phones on planes from disrupting ground networks, a decade after the FCC first licensed 800 MHz cellular service in 1981.

Carr and Trusty issued separate statements, and Gomez approved without one. The commission’s next drone spectrum votes come on November 19, when it takes up 450 MHz control links and 24 GHz drone-detection radar.

Amazon and Red Cat Backed the Order Alongside AT&T and Verizon

Two days before the vote, the FCC published statements from 11 organizations supporting the change. They included AT&T, Verizon, CTIA, Amazon, Red Cat, Ondas and AUVSI. Ashleigh de la Torre, Amazon’s vice president of public policy, tied it to delivery: “reliable wireless communications are essential.”

Red Cat, whose Black Widow drone won the Army’s short-range reconnaissance contract in 2024, said maturing drones need carrier networks as a “backup link.”

DroneXL’s Take

I don’t think spectrum was ever what kept American operators from flying BVLOS at scale. Drones already fly on carrier networks at 700 MHz and in the PCS band, so 800 MHz mostly gives AT&T and Verizon more capacity to sell to drone customers. That is worth having, and the FCC got it through on a unanimous vote, from a draft that cited no opposition. The decision that changes what a pilot may legally do belongs to the FAA. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 gave the agency 16 months from its August 7, 2025 proposal to finish Part 108, which puts the deadline 39 days out. Until that rule is final, an operator with a carrier plan gets a bigger network once FCC 26-72 takes effect and keeps flying BVLOS under a waiver or an exemption.

Sources: FCC October 2026 Open Meeting, FCC news release “FCC Opens More Cellular Spectrum for Drones,” October 29, 2026, FCC “What They Are Saying” release, October 27, 2026, FCC draft Report and Order, FCC-CIRC2610-03

DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.