The Federal Communications Commission Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology issued Order DA 26-972 on September 11, 2026. The order temporarily waives selected aeronautical-mobile prohibitions so the U.S. Department of Transportation can run the Mobile Network Aviation Assessment Program, or MNAAP, in the contiguous United States.
MNAAP exists to measure the quality of commercial wireless signals at altitude. DOT wants evidence on whether those networks can support aviation safety functions: unmanned aircraft command and control, autonomous detect and avoid, electronic conspicuity, Remote ID, and counter-UAS detection and identification. The FCC said it will use the results when it considers broader commercial use of spectrum for UAS.
The waiver is not a license to fly a phone as a command link. It is a test authorization for DOT-approved participants. It expires at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time on October 1, 2029.
What the Commission actually waived
Modern handsets and modules pick bands automatically. Several of those bands still carry rules that bar aeronautical mobile use. An airborne device that hops onto a restricted band would violate those rules even if the pilot never intended to use that frequency.
DA 26-972 waives, on the Commission own motion and only as needed for MNAAP, the aeronautical-mobile restrictions in 47 C.F.R. sections 2.106(a), 2.106(c)(431), 22.925, 27.2(a), 27.4, 30.6(a), 90.423, and 96.39(h). Operations stay inside the National Airspace System over CONUS. Participants may not cause interference to existing wireless networks. Operations that do not match the International Table of Frequency Allocations get no interference protection.
Covered bands in the order include 600 MHz, 700 MHz, FirstNet Band 14, 800 MHz cellular, AWS-1, AWS-3, AWS H Block, AWS-4, PCS, WCS, BRS, 3.45 GHz, CBRS, 3.7 GHz, and several millimeter-wave allocations (24, 28, 37, and 47 GHz). That list is the measurement envelope, not an invitation to operate C2 on every listed band.
Two collection paths: phones and UAS modules
DOT can authorize up to 2,000 general-aviation pilots at one time to run the MNAAP App on ordinary, equipment-authorized smartphones and other consumer wireless devices. The app may use only information a consumer device already exposes. It may not poke base stations in ways a normal handset would not. It may report to DOT database no more than once every two seconds. DOT can disable a participant remotely.
Separately, DOT can field dedicated MNAAP Modules on up to 200 unmanned aircraft at one time. Those modules must complete FCC Part 2 equipment authorization and the nationwide mobile providers own certification programs. They are non-transferable and must be decommissioned when the waiver ends.
The split is deliberate. GA aircraft can sweep long routes and a wide altitude band. Drones can sit in the 0-400 foot AGL layer Part 107 pilots actually occupy, where ground-optimized antennas often look different from a coverage map.
Southwest Research Institute is the prime contractor. OmniAir Consortium is a named subcontractor supporting prototypes, demonstrations, the mobile app, and a community of practice around cellular-based electronic conspicuity. Sponsorship sits with DOT Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology through the Highly Automated Systems Safety Center of Excellence.
What this is not
The waiver does not authorize general airborne use of cellular phones or LTE/5G modules on drones; find that commercial networks already meet aviation safety performance standards; change Part 107, Part 135, or the still-pending Part 108 BVLOS framework; replace FAA Remote ID equipment rules or LAANC authorizations; or give a contractor a new certificate privilege.
A Part 107 operation that needs a nonstandard C2 architecture still needs the same FAA path it needed on September 10: a rule that already allows the method, or a waiver or exemption that names it.
Why working pilots should care anyway
Routine BVLOS needs a command-and-control path that survives handoffs, terrain, and altitude changes. Network Remote ID and electronic conspicuity need the same kind of coverage evidence. Public-safety fleets that lean on FirstNet Band 14 have a direct stake in whether Band 14 stays usable above the tree line.
For an independent contractor the near-term work is narrower:
- Do not install an uncertified cellular module and call it MNAAP. Only DOT-authorized modules and app users sit under DA 26-972.
- Keep flying under Part 107 with the C2 and Remote ID gear already authorized for that aircraft.
- If a client, OEM, or public-safety partner asks you to host a module, demand written DOT participant status, the module FCC equipment authorization, the carrier certification, and a decommission plan dated no later than the waiver sunset.
- Log any airborne connectivity drop you already see on LTE-connected payloads.
- Watch GN Docket 26-74. The FCC stated it will take lessons from MNAAP into later spectrum decisions for UAS.
Related reading: Remote ID fleet audit, drone delivery scale-up, delivery-support due diligence, public-safety data-security checklist.
Public-safety and disaster use
FirstNet Band 14 is inside the measurement list. Agencies that fly drone-as-first-responder or disaster-assessment missions on public-safety broadband should treat MNAAP as a coverage study, not as a new flight authority.
Business opportunity, with the cap in view
Two hundred UAS slots is a small fleet. The commercial opening is support work: helping a DOT-authorized participant integrate a certified module, fly repeatable altitude profiles, and keep records that will survive an audit. Quote that work as instrumented test support, not as a new operating certificate.
Bottom line for the certificate holder
DA 26-972 opened a three-year, CONUS-wide measurement campaign. The useful output for a Part 107 pilot is evidence about the network layer that future BVLOS and network Remote ID designs will sit on. The dangerous misread is treating the waiver as permission to airborne-cell a standard job. Until DOT names you as a participant and the FAA names the operation, fly the rules you already hold.