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By Todd Shields

(Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc. criticized a Defense Department proposal that could let commercial rivals use military airwaves for a fast 5G network as a “drastic and unproven” plan.

Republican and Democratic lawmakers already have questioned the plan from the Pentagon, which last month asked industry to provide “innovative ideas” for sharing airwaves. U.S. airwaves usually are allocated via auctions run by the Federal Communications Commission.

“It makes no sense to do something so drastic and unproven,” Joan Marsh, AT&T’s executive vice president of federal regulatory, said in a blog post on Monday. “What’s really at issue, however, is the determination of a vested minority to roll the dice with American 5G leadership by upending the proven methods of delivering wireless service.”

The DoD made the proposal in response to administration policy for quickly building 5G networks that are expected to enable a variety of technologies including autonomous vehicles and connected factories and homes. At the same time, the Pentagon’s step responds to longstanding impatience among some civilian spectrum officials who see the military as hesitant to release frequencies to meet commercial appetite for airwaves.

Karl Rove, a Republican political consultant, is registered as a lobbyist for closely held Rivada Networks LLC. Rivada in its filing to the DoD on Monday called for a network built with private capital, “shared with commercial users who are subject to pre-emption by DoD.” In other words, the military could claim the airwaves when needed.

Rivada said it favors a “a wholesale wireless network, rather than an old-fashioned retail-focused one.”

The mobile trade group CTIA, with members including AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc., opposes the DoD proposal, and used a Sept. 30 press release to criticize “a nationalized 5G network.”

Republican Senator John Thune and more than two dozen of his colleagues in a Sept. 30 letter told President Donald Trump the Defense Department’s path “contradicts the successful free-market strategy you have embraced for 5G.”

In 2018 a proposal for heavy federal involvement in a national 5G network was quickly sidetracked amid criticism from establishment conservatives.