Wireless Industry Seeks Tweaks to 700 MHz Relicensing Rules
CTIA expressed general support for an FCC Wireless Bureau notice on the process for determining which areas are being served by 700 MHz licensees and for relicensing areas deemed unserved. In August, the bureau sought comment on rules for relicensing…
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of 700 MHz lower A-, B- and E-block and the upper C-block spectrum returned to agency's inventory for licensees’ failure to meet construction requirements (see 1708280052). The FCC should give licensees flexibility to accurately determine coverage “by declining to adopt a specific field strength limit and allowing 700 MHz licensees to instead provide a coverage showing that is based on real-world service,” CTIA commented in docket 06-150. The FCC should streamline the application process and “afford parties the time necessary to reach agreements to resolve mutually exclusive applications or attempt to reach a settlement,” CTIA said. The field strength metric proposed for determining coverage isn’t the right approach, the group said: “The 40 dBμV/m field strength limit proposed by the Bureau … was designed to protect adjacent-area licensees (i.e., for interference protection), not to predict coverage.” As a company interested in buying spectrum, it's very focused on the rules, T-Mobile said. “T-Mobile encourages the Commission to simplify required demonstrations and rigorously enforce its performance requirements so that spectrum not in use can be quickly recaptured to provide service.” But, the carrier said, proposed mapping requirements are “unnecessarily burdensome and will complicate relicensing of unused spectrum.” The Rural Wireless Association opposed a proposal to treat any modification, cancellation or assignment of a license as a failure to meet the 100 percent buildout requirement, leading to automatic license termination. “While RWA understands the Bureau’s concern with use of the spectrum relicensing process to engage in spectrum warehousing and other activities that contravene the public interest, the proposal fails to recognize the legitimate reasons that may prompt a need for a license modification during the relicensing process,” the group commented. “Due to the vagaries of RF radiation, it is difficult for a licensee to ensure that it provides the requisite level of signal coverage to every square inch of its license territory. In some instances, real world propagation may not allow a licensee to duplicate predicted coverage.”