CTIA fired back at NAB comments that the...
CTIA fired back at NAB comments that the FCC should gather more information “on how intensely mobile broadband providers use their already-allotted spectrum in various geographic markets” as the agency writes its annual wireless competition report. The NAB remarks (http://bit.ly/1bOZJs9)…
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came in reply comments to a Wireless Bureau public notice. “While NAB may be confused about the facts when it comes to consumer demand and spectrum usage, it is clear that the Commission need not entertain this misguided attempt to create a diversion in its ongoing spectrum proceedings,” CTIA Vice President Scott Bergmann said in a Thursday blog post (http://bit.ly/13q8inT). “Instead, it can continue to focus on the critically important spectrum proceedings that Congress and the Administration directed.” More work remains to hit spectrum goals in the National Broadband Plan and Spectrum Act, he said. “Having recently released an order adopting service rules for the H Block, the FCC must now turn to planning an auction of this spectrum,” he said. “The Commission also recently initiated a proceeding to make up to 70 MHz of AWS-3 spectrum available for mobile broadband. Going forward, both the AWS-3 proceeding and H Block auction will require the attention and expertise of key Commission staff. Most importantly, the Commission is working tirelessly to establish rules for the first-of-its-kind broadcast incentive auction, an incredibly complex process.” NAB Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan said the blog post leaves questions unanswered. “It appears as if our comments hit a nerve in the soft underbelly of CTIA’s unending spectrum crunch storyline,” Kaplan said. “We asked two simple questions that CTIA’s blog still fails to answer. First, if the government is going to push everything else aside to dish out spectrum to the wireless industry, one would imagine it would do at least some analysis as to how the wireless industry is using that spectrum -- especially when it already has far more spectrum than any other industry. And today, the FCC collects absolutely no data -- literally zero -- on how efficiently the wireless industry uses its spectrum. Second, we asked whether the recent major spectrum consolidation in the wireless industry -- with megahertz upon megahertz changing hands -- should affect how we view how much spectrum that industry needs? These are basic questions that a data-driven agency should explore, and it’s curious that it provoked such a strong response from CTIA."