The FCC notified the NTIA it plans to start an...

said (http://fcc.us/ZNM3n7). “As directed by Congress in the Spectrum Act, NTIA recently identified the 1695-1710 MHz band as the 15 megahertz of spectrum between 1675 MHz and 1710 MHz to be reallocated from federal use to non-federal use,” the FCC said. “The Spectrum Act now requires the Commission to allocate this identified spectrum for commercial use and to license the spectrum by February 2015. Our goal is to ensure that the Commission has adequate time to conduct this auction and complete the subsequent licensing process prior to the Spectrum Act’s deadline.” The 1695-1710 MHz is part of the 1675-1710 MHz band, which provides weather satellite downlinks, and was the subject of a Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee working group, which looked at sharing in the band. The 1755-1780 MHz band has been a longtime target for carriers for reallocation for wireless broadband. A government official said the move is mostly ministerial and provides options for the FCC to reallocate the 1755 MHz spectrum, though many questions remain. “We are happy that both the FCC and NTIA are working to move these two pairings to auction,” said CTIA Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe. “Clearing this spectrum and moving the bands to auction will bring tremendous, measurable benefits to our economy, our citizens and our country.” “T-Mobile has worked closely with the FCC, NTIA, and federal users to make these bands available for mobile broadband use and today’s designation marks a critical milestone in this process,” said Senior Vice President Tom Sugrue. “When paired with spectrum the FCC already has under its jurisdiction, these frequency blocks can provide an additional 80 MHz of valuable spectrum adjacent to the AWS-1 band, and expand US leadership in LTE mobile broadband deployment.” Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member John Thune, R-S.D., said he was glad to see the FCC taking steps to pair and auction together the 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz wireless spectrum bands according to a news release following the publication of the letter. Thune commended Commissioner Ajit Pai for advocating the FCC use of its notify-and-auction authority and said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has “once again shown he clearly understands the tremendous potential of commercial mobile broadband and the importance of making more public resources available to the private sector for development,” the news release said. Thune urged NTIA and the White House to concentrate their efforts on reallocating the 1755-1780 MHz band “for as much exclusive, non-federal use as is feasible. Cleared spectrum is the best way to meet consumer demand and raise revenues needed to relocate current users and reduce the deficit,” he said. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said she too was pleased by the FCC’s letter: “Pairing the 1755-1780 MHz band with 2155-2180 MHZ band makes sense not just for revenue purposes, but also for innovation in our ever growing digital economy,” she said in an email sent via her spokesman. “The clock is ticking on the AWS-3 spectrum reallocation. We must find a timely solution that address both our economic needs and our national security challenges.” Last congress Matsui introduced the Efficient Use of Government Spectrum Act which sought to require the FCC to pair for commercial auction the 1755-1780 MHz band with the 2155-2180 MHz band (CD April 27 p5).