Why We Founded Airbase
The entire modern world runs on an invisible resource.
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The entire modern world runs on an invisible resource.
Every time a cellphone connects to a tower, a satellite beams data to Earth, a drone takes flight, or a soldier calls for support—they are relying on radio frequency (RF) Spectra. The RF spectrum is, in a quiet and underappreciated way, the central nervous system of the 21st century. It is the unseen highway that carries the data on which our economy and our national security depend.
But what is the radio frequency spectrum?
For the fellow RF engineers out there, it is the finite range of electromagnetic frequencies from 3 kHz to 300 GHz where we exploit physics to juggle everything from submarine pings to 4K Instagram streams without them crashing into each other.
But for now, you can think of it like a system of real estate in the airwaves. Every wireless signal occupies a specific band of frequencies, a tiny slice of the RF spectrum. So many systems require spectrum for different purposes that governments have to divide up the spectrum, granting licenses to dictate who can transmit what, where, and when. You can’t simply start transmitting on a frequency because you want to; you need authorization, and that authorization flows through federal agencies—in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). And the entire wireless economy runs on this essential system of allocation and coordination.
And the number of devices and systems that rely on spectrum is exploding. Beyond denser 5G (and, soon, 6G) networks, we’re seeing an unprecedented proliferation of autonomous systems: everything from commercial drones to self-driving cars to industrial robots on factory floors. In order to operate safely, each and every one of these autonomous systems depends on reliable access to RF spectrum. And this massive growth in usership is making spectrum a more crowded and complex resource than it ever was before.
And these systems need spectrum access on timelines that the current systems were simply never designed to support.
The systems that manage who gets to use which frequencies when and where are entering a slow-moving crisis. Not in an immediate or dramatic way, where it’ll stop working next week and your garage door suddenly won’t be able to open; but in the gradual, grinding way that most crises actually develop, where every year the gap between what the technology could do and what it actually does widens ever-so-slightly.
The bottleneck is the system that sits between demand and supply. The FCC and the NTIA have brilliant engineers, lawyers, and public servants. But they’re working with tools from a different century.
Airbase is the partner the U.S. government needs to build the wireless provisioning system required for the future for RF infrastructure.
A resilient, abundant wireless future
We founded Airbase because the greatest threat to our wireless future is a lack of access and coordination. At True Anomaly, Planet, and Boeing, we watched as cutting-edge innovations such as new satellite constellations, advanced autonomous systems, and critical defense capabilities were grounded not by physics but by paperwork.
We saw a world where the demand for data, and the number of devices, is exponential, but the infrastructure managing it is stuck in the analog era. We realized that if we don’t fix the foundation for spectrum provisioning, the next generation of technology simply will not come to pass—at least not on American shores.
We founded Airbase to solve three critical challenges:
Spectrum is Constrained: Physics imposes hard limits on spectrum access. There is a finite amount of radio frequency spectrum to go around. And the demand is exploding. From 5G to LEO mega-constellations, everyone is fighting for the same beachfront property. The traditional answer has been to slice the pie ever-thinner, or to operate on a first-come first-served basis. We believe that the combination of intelligent software and hardware provides a better answer.
Spectrum is Underutilized: Vast swaths of spectrum sit idle because of rigid, decades-old allocations managed by static databases and PDF forms. We are stuck orchestrating a dynamic, real-time world with administrative tools from the 1980s. We want to replace that friction with dynamic, software-defined agility.
Spectrum is Vulnerable: In an increasingly contested world, spectrum is a battlefield. Commercial and governmental assets are fragile and targeted constantly. They rely on frequencies that are often jammed or contested. We believe that without a real-time, intelligent layer to manage these assets, America’s critical infrastructure is vulnerable to foreign threats.
Airbase’s mission is simple: to transform spectrum from a static utility into a software-defined resource. We believe that bandwidth should be negotiated by machines in milliseconds and not by humans in months or years. And we believe that spectrum should be fluid, adapting to the needs of the moment rather than trapped within rigid licenses.
Now is the time
We are at an inflection point. The commercial space economy is taking off. The nature of warfare is shifting to the RF domain. The devices in our pockets are becoming hungrier for data.
The speed of innovation has lapped the speed of human coordination.
We founded Airbase to be the bridge. To bring the clarity of modern software to the chaos of the airwaves. To ensure that whether you are launching a rocket, deploying a 5G network, or defending the nation, you have the freedom of action to operate without constraint.
And most importantly, this vision of the future is becoming reality. Federal regulators are already using our software to analyze and coordinate spectrum access. Airbase is already working directly alongside the U.S. government, building tools for the problems that they face each and every day. And there is so much more to come.
The invisible infrastructure of our world is in crisis. And we exist to fix it.
Welcome to Airbase.
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