Pai Proposes 3.5 GHz Rule Changes Sought by Wireless Industry, Among Other Meeting Items

The FCC would also scrap a "main studio" broadcast rule and update broadcast reporting duties, but didn't put media ownership changes on the tentative agenda for the Oct. 24 commissioners meeting. A draft NPRM and notice of inquiry would look to move to nationwide number portability, and a draft order would eliminate international traffic and revenue reports, and streamline circuit capacity reports. The agenda includes a planned vote on giving authorities more ready access to Caller ID information on threatening calls.

“Since the Commission established these rules, it has become increasingly apparent that the 3.5 GHz Band will play a significant role as one of the core mid-range bands for 5G network deployments throughout the world,” the draft NPRM said. “We anticipate that the targeted changes considered in this Notice will foster an investment environment for the band to flourish in the United States, as other nations target these frequencies for 5G and next-generation technologies.”

Instead of auctioning more than 500,000 PALs at the census-tract level, the FCC would rely on partial economic area (PEA) licenses -- the license size developed for the AWS-3 auction. But the NPRM asks if a “hybrid” approach would be more appropriate, with census tracts in rural areas and PEAs in urban areas. The NPRM proposes that instead of the three-year licenses in the current rules, with automatic termination of the PAL, the spectrum will be licensed for 10 years with ability to renew. “This approach is consistent with that adopted for other wireless services and will afford each licensee sufficient time to design and acquire the necessary equipment and devices and to deploy facilities across the license area,” the draft said. In another win for carriers, the NPRM proposes to allow partitioning and disaggregation of PALs in secondary market transactions.

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, slammed the draft, saying most commenters opposed changes sought by CTIA (see 1707250017). “The chairman has simply cut and pasted CTIA’s petition and circulated it as proposed new rules that exclude thousands of other users and use cases from access to mid-band spectrum,” Calabrese told us. Charter said it's very focused on the band: “While we support small adjustments to the licensing rules to help facilitate investment and deployment, the FCC should avoid changes that could cause delay or discourage innovation.” The Wireless ISP Association said it is “very disappointed” in the draft and will oppose the changes.

“My goal has always been to quickly and thoughtfully determine how to ensure innovation and investment in the band and, correspondingly, alter the [Citizens Broadband Radio Service] structure so that all interested parties can be accommodated, including those interested in PALs,” O’Rielly said. He said the NPRM “represents a careful review of the record developed in response to the petitions filed and the inherent need to modify previous short-sighted rules to reflect the development of 5G technologies and the international spectrum environment.”

The Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology Tuesday established a new docket for comments on the 3.5 GHz CBRS. It's 17-258 and is captioned “Promoting Investment in the 3550-3700 MHz Band,” a notice said.

Main Studios

A draft order would end a 1939 rule that radio and TV broadcasters have a main studio located in or near the community where a station is licensed, as expected (see 1709060073). "This rule is unnecessary; most consumers get in touch with stations over the phone or through electronic means, stations’ public inspection files are mostly online, and technology enables stations to produce local news without a nearby studio," Pai blogged. Eliminating the rule and associated staffing duties will produce cost savings that can be redirected to programming, equipment upgrades, newsgathering and other services, encouraging broadcasters to start new stations in small towns and rural areas, said a draft summary. The draft would require broadcasters to maintain a local or toll-free phone number for their communities, and to keep public inspection files locally available if not online.

The main studio rule elimination could get some opposition. Revoking it “really excludes the idea of what broadcasting is supposed to be about,” eliminating some of the localism that comes with having a locally based studio, said former Commissioner Michael Copps, now a special adviser at Common Cause, during a news-media call Tuesday on Sinclair/Tribune (see 1710030051).

An NPRM would seek comment on updating broadcast reporting obligations for provision of ancillary or supplementary services and for public notification of the filing of broadcast applications. Pai blogged that the broadcast application rules change makes sense "given changes in how Americans access information." Under the NPRM, the agency would require only broadcasters providing ancillary or supplementary services for which the FCC charges fees to submit Form 2100 annually. It would seek comment on whether to allow station applicants to give public notice of applications online instead of via newspaper publication or broadcast announcement, or whether to repeal the rule completely.

Telecom Agenda

A draft NPRM and NOI would seek ways to usher in nationwide number portability (NNP), going beyond the current local number portability that allows consumers to keep their phone numbers when changing carriers. The items would "explore modernizing its rules so that consumers and businesses can port their number to any carrier in any location," Pai blogged. "That could increase competition between carriers large and small -- and let you keep that number you know and love wherever you go." The items would seek comment on eliminating an "N-1 requirement" to "allow carriers flexibility in conducting number portability database queries to promote NNP and efficient network routing," and on eliminating a requirement "as it applies to interexchange service to remove barriers to NNP and better reflect the competitive realities," said a draft summary.

The FCC would eliminate the annual international traffic and revenue reports of carriers under Part 43 rules, relying instead on targeted data collections as needed along with third-party commercial data sources, said a draft order summary. It would modify international circuit capacity reports by eliminating a requirement that carriers file circuit data for terrestrial and satellite facilities, while retaining other data collection. Industry supported scrapping traffic and revenue reports, with some also calling for eliminating the circuit-capacity reports (see 1705190028), but the Department of Homeland Security opposed eliminating undersea cable reporting (see 1709250048).

Pai is also seeking a vote on a draft order to allow law enforcement and community institutions to get from carriers quick access to the Caller ID information they need to identify and thwart threatening callers. The FCC approved an NPRM in June (see 1706220023). “If you are transmitting bomb threats through phone calls, there is no legitimate reason for you to block your caller ID information,” Pai blogged. “We would prevent abuse of this exemption by limiting access to blocked caller ID information to law enforcement and others responsible for the safety of the threatened party. This would give law enforcement information they need to quickly identify and thwart threatening callers, while still protecting the privacy of law-abiding citizens.”

Commissioners also will vote on an order to clean up hearing-aid compatibility standards for wireless and wireline handsets. “These rules would reflect the increased reliance by consumers on wireless devices and the standards for volume control developed by industry for both wireline and wireless handsets,” Pai blogged.