FCC, NTIA Ensure Abundant Information Forthcoming To Inform Potential AWS-3 Bidders

The FCC released the service rules for the auction last month in a report and order (CD April 1 p1). The FCC goal was to create a band that’s an extension of the AWS-1 rules and that will be compatible with the AWS-1 technical rules, said Brian Regan, a Wireless Bureau attorney. The report and order adopts an interoperability requirement in its most basic form, he said. The buildout requirements accommodate that the bands will be shared, he said. The buildout timelines are longer, which is six years from the time license is granted, he said. The bureau plans to issue a public notice on the coordination process, followed by a public notice outlining the auction procedures, he added.

Compiling the estimated costs for sharing and relocation and publishing the transition plans are some milestones that still need to be met, said Peter Tenhula, an NTIA senior adviser. The transition plans should be published on the NTIA site, www.spectrum.gov, “to the extent that they don’t include classified or sensitive information,” he said.

Government and industry are using the lessons learned from working on the AWS-1 implementation and incorporating them into the current process, the panelists said. Improvements made to the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act (CSEA) resulted from lessons learned from AWS-1, said David Redl, chief counsel to the House Commerce Committee. It’s encouraging that the FCC and NTIA are doing the same thing by “taking those lessons learned that we had in that transition … and moving forward in a way that improves upon our past performances,” he said. The next six weeks will be crucial, said Shawn Chang, senior Democratic communications counsel to the House Commerce Committee. “We really need to look at the approach of a nationwide coordination and examine whether or not it’s going to be sufficient to attract the bidders that come to the table that we need to provide substantial amounts of money to help fund FirstNet,” he said. The potential bidders need as much information as possible before the auction, he said. The framers of the auction process must figure out how to lower the cost of reallocating the federal services, Chang said. The time frame of the sharing arrangements will be short “so that the commercial providers can come in and start providing their services,” he said.

The government has more experience in the attempt to transition AWS-3 than with transitioning AWS-1, said Redl. It also is important for the changes that were made to the CSEA allowing for equipment upgrades for AWS-1 to be incorporated into the AWS-3 transition plans, Redl said.

The Wireless Bureau wants to provide the maximum amount of information to bidders in advance of the auction “to give them the information they need to accurately value it and bid effectively at the auction,” Regan said. The goal of the coordination notice is to establish a process giving notice to bidders about the steps they can take to engage in coordination, he said. The PN also will inform bidders that the protection zones are as small as they can be, he said.

Executives from AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon reiterated that they prefer that the spectrum be auctioned in smaller blocks, however, they're pleased with the order, they said during a later panel. The coordination and transition issues are the biggest outliers going forward, said Steve Sharkey, chief engineering and technology policy director at T-Mobile. “There’s still a lot of work to do on how much time it’s going to take to clear the bands and get information on what’s actually in the bands, what will be left and how we work around that.” An agreement is needed on how the final details will be worked out, he said. The reserve price is probably the most controversial piece, said Charla Rath, vice president-wireless policy development at Verizon. More granular information should be provided before the auction, she said. This would be best done on a market-by-market basis starting with the larger markets first, she said.

Dish Network wants to be in the wireless business and is a potential bidder for AWS-3, said Jeff Blum, Dish deputy general counsel. The details of the transition plan will be critical, he said. “Before our chairman [Charlie Ergen] decides whether to spend billions of dollars, you actually need to know what you're getting.” It’s important to know the limitations of the spectrum, the frequencies to be used and the restrictions, he said. The expectation is that AWS-3 can pay public safety off, he said. “In order to hit that number, you're going to need a lot of competition, robust bidders, [and] a lot of interest,” he said. It will stifle participation if industry doesn’t know whether it can provide local broadband in Los Angeles and under what time frame, he said.

Some exclusion zones are hundreds of kilometers, said Sharkey, referring to the parts of the band reserved for federal operations only. “Getting the coordination and calculations right is important to make sure we can serve L.A.” and not affect the Department of Defense’s mission and needs, he said.

Ensuring the government that its operations won’t be adversely affected is key, said Blum. With AWS-4, Dish learned that “as long as we can guarantee that the noise level will be below a certain amount when it reaches the government systems, they were OK with what we did,” he said. Having the flexibility to use filters or tilting is better than mandates that require an exclusion zone or other requirement, he said.

NTIA’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee can still have a role after the auction, Verizon’s Rath said. “It’s like an oversight type of role.” It could offer expertise when other bands are identified, she said. CSMAC also can help promote dialogue between industry experts and government experts when it comes to sharing options, Sharkey said. AT&T supports the idea of offering incentives for federal agencies to share spectrum, but the approach may have to change, said Stacey Black, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory. “You can’t just pay an agency money and expect them to just move.” Agencies are already sharing bands among themselves, he said: “They're not looking at it to make a profit.” There should be funding for the agencies to conduct research and development to find ways to move out, he said.