On 14 May 2026 Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada published SPB-004-26, the Policy and Licensing Framework for Spectrum in the 26 GHz and 38 GHz Bands. This is a final decision document — the outcome of the SPB-001-22 consultation and the 2025 addendum on repurposing the lower 26 GHz range. Where the previous documents in the chain were consultations or interim decisions, SPB-004-26 is the framework that will govern the upcoming mmWave auction, which the parallel auction-timeline notice schedules for 19 October 2027.
The framework's headline decisions are familiar from the consultation phase: flexible-use Tier 5 licences across both bands, 100 MHz channelization aligned with the 3GPP 5G mmWave grid, an unpaired TDD band plan in the 26 GHz band, and a hard transition deadline for the legacy fixed Tier 3 licensees who hold the bands today. What the framework adds is the operational calendar — the dates a manufacturer or operator needs in order to plan equipment availability, market entry, and the regulatory filings that hang off the auction.
What is being licensed, and how?
The 26 GHz band covers 24.25-27.5 GHz in the framework's working definition, structured as twenty-four 100 MHz unpaired blocks in the auctioned portion, after subtracting the carve-outs for incumbent satellite earth stations and the segments reserved for non-competitive local licensing. The licensing model is TDD-only — paired FDD is not on offer — which aligns with the 3GPP 5G mmWave channelization for bands n257 (26.5-29.5 GHz) and n258 (24.25-27.5 GHz). The 38 GHz band covers 37.6-40.0 GHz as twenty-four 100 MHz unpaired blocks, aligned with 3GPP n260 (37-40 GHz).
Service areas are Tier 5 — ISED's smallest geographic licensing tier — which is a deliberate choice to enable local and regional deployments without forcing licensees to clear continent-scale areas. Tier 5 sits below the Tier 3 service areas that the legacy fixed mmWave licences were issued on; the transition from Tier 3 to Tier 5 is consequently a redrawing of the geographic licence map at the same time as the flexible-use rule change.
What is the transition path for existing licensees?
Existing fixed Tier 3 licensees in the 26 GHz and 38 GHz bands have a defined window to convert to flexible-use Tier 5 licences. ISED will accept transition applications until 19 April 2027. Licensees that elect not to transition, or that miss the window, continue to operate under their existing fixed Tier 3 authorizations through the legacy expiry date — but the regime is closed to new fixed Tier 3 issuances and the framework's directional signal is that the long-term home for incumbents is the flexible Tier 5 regime, not the legacy one.
A separate transfer window for licences in the affected bands closes 19 February 2027, two months ahead of the transition application deadline. Together, those two dates define the structural shape of the auction's pre-event period: incumbent transfers settle first, the transition population is fixed two months later, and the published list of spectrum holdings updates two months after that — on 17 June 2027 — to reflect the post-transfer, post-transition map.
What about co-existence with satellite earth stations?
The mmWave bands sit on top of legacy satellite earth-station allocations — Earth Exploration Satellite Service downlinks at 25.5-27.0 GHz, the FSS uplinks at 27.5-29.5 GHz that overlap the upper 26 GHz framework definition, and the FSS Ka-band at 37.5-40.0 GHz that overlaps the 38 GHz framework. SPB-004-26 carries forward the moratorium on new EESS earth-station licences in the 26.5-28.35 GHz and 37.5-40.0 GHz ranges in certain geographic areas — first put in place under SAB-002-21 in 2021 — and adds an auction-window coordination moratorium that runs from four weeks before auction start through the announcement of provisional licence winners. The stated intent is to prevent late earth-station filings from generating co-existence claims that would muddy the auction outcome.
ISED will publish the list of protected existing, planned, or modified EESS earth stations on 19 April 2027 — the same date the transition application window closes. That list defines the satellite-side co-existence map that mmWave auction winners will build around.
What is the auction timeline?
The published auction calendar puts the major milestones at: clarification questions due 25 June 2026, with ISED's responses published 17 August 2026; transfer applications due 19 February 2027; transition applications due 19 April 2027; protected EESS earth-station list published 19 April 2027; updated spectrum-holdings list 17 June 2027; auction applications and 100% pre-auction deposits due 6 July 2027; qualified-bidder list 11 August 2027; mock auctions starting 13 September 2027; auction opening 19 October 2027. Initial payment is due 10 business days after provisional-winner announcement; final payment and licence issuance follow 60 business days after that.
The October 2027 auction opening date is the binding planning anchor for an equipment vendor or carrier targeting the Canadian mmWave market. Devices that depend on Canadian-market authorization for shipment will need to clear ISED equipment-authorization processes well ahead of the October 2027 date if they are going to be available for first network deployments by qualified bidders.
What does this mean for equipment vendors?
Two operational implications for the manufacturer or test-house perspective. First, the 3GPP-aligned channelization means a Canadian mmWave device certification is largely an extension of the same RF design and test capability that the U.S. and EU mmWave certifications already exercise — not a separate channel plan. The same n257 / n258 / n260 device-side hardware can target the Canadian Tier 5 market with conformance work overlapping the FCC and CE paths rather than diverging from them. That is the harmonization win in the framework and the reason a vendor already certified for FCC Part 30 mmWave does not start from zero on the Canadian side.
Second, the TDD-only choice in the 26 GHz band closes off any residual FDD-paired use cases the legacy fixed Tier 3 incumbents may have built backhaul on. Microwave-backhaul vendors that have served those Tier 3 customers should plan for the regime change as much as for the technology change — the transition application is a one-time event with a hard deadline, and the legacy fixed-use product positioning needs to be revisited against the new flexible-use Tier 5 reality.