Getting Rules Right for 3.5 GHz Band Extremely Challenging, AT&T Warns

The spectrum is now set aside for high-powered military radar and fixed satellite service (FSS) earth stations and satellites. The FCC’s original NPRM from late last year proposed that the band be reallocated under a three-tiered “Citizens Broadband Service” under Part 95 of the commission’s rules. Under the FCC’s original proposal (http://fcc.us/JnSv1c), the first, most protected tier would include authorized federal users and grandfathered FSS licensees. A second tier, protected access, would offer quality-assured access to critical use operations, such as hospitals, utilities, government facilities, and public safety agencies. A third tier, general authorized access, would include all other users -- including the general public -- who would have access to the spectrum without the same levels of protections as the other two tiers.

AT&T said Google had proposed a “wide-ranging automated management system for the multi-tiered shared use” of the band. “As wireless telecommunications continue to expand, it is this kind of thinking that can unlock greater portions of the radio spectrum for use in providing ever more complex communications solutions,” AT&T said (http://bit.ly/1hA7l1b). But the carrier also warned that devising the SAS won’t be easy. “It is no overstatement to say that, no matter who creates the SAS, it will be the most sophisticated and complicated spectrum management system yet deployed by the FCC. Clearly, the deployment of so complex a system is fraught with potential missteps and hazards. This complexity is also heightened by the fact the database will contain the location and operating characteristics of federal systems that are required for our national security.”

Google and CTIA are at odds on a key question, whether the FCC should put in place a third tier for general access to the band. “The optimal approach” is “a two-tier spectrum access regime with incumbent operations and otherwise exclusive-use licenses,” CTIA argued (http://bit.ly/1cPBRiY). The wireless association encouraged the FCC to establish “a stable regulatory environment that will promote investment and deployment in the 3.5 GHz band."

"A two-tier approach that accommodates only incumbents and Priority Access licensees incorrectly assumes that the highest and best use of commercial spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band is and always will be operations that rely on quality of service guarantees,” Google said (http://bit.ly/1dAMGXF). “The record shows that this is not true. Opportunistic access to spectrum -- such as in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands -- has driven innovation and created enormous economic value that would not have been realized under traditional licensed access models."

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association encouraged the FCC to allow higher power operations in rural areas served by WISPs. There is an “unmet demand for fixed broadband services in rural America” and higher-power operations in the 3550-3650 MHz band would “help address the wide disparity of broadband service availability that makes rural Americans significantly more unlikely to have access to broadband,” WISPA said (http://bit.ly/JZPLry).

To spur deployment in the band, the FCC should allow for Time Division LTE, 4G Americas said. “Single-band TD-LTE chipsets and devices were available in 2012, and multi-mode band devices are now available,” 4G Americas said (http://bit.ly/1kCWCoW). “In order to enable an innovative ecosystem of LTE devices and applications, the final rules adopted in this proceeding should not preclude the deployment of TD-LTE at 3550-3700 MHz.” The group applauded the FCC for a proposed revised framework under which carriers would have protected access to the band. “Mobile operators can deploy small cells in the 3.5 GHz band as part of heterogeneous networks -- HetNets. Small cells in the band can be used for off-loading traffic, much like Wi-Fi is used today by mobile carriers,” the group said.