Questions Remain on BDAC, How Useful It Will Be, NARUC Official Says

BDAC “was a good idea” and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai deserves “kudos,” Ramsay said. The problem is the membership, he said. “You can’t expect a group of people not to reflect their own values and views, and the composition of BDAC is a little skewed in one direction.” Most siting laws are only a year or two old and shouldn't be relied on too heavily in establishing model rules until there's “empirical data” on impact, he said.

Some BDAC recommendations aren’t controversial, said Christopher Yoo, a member and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. “There are 10 fairly commonsense recommendations where, if the BDAC does nothing else, it has contributed something by coalescing things around [points] where there is broad agreement." Yoo agreed to help gather data on the actual rates and fee agreements for access to rights of way and siting. There are many claims, but “we decided to let the data do the talking,” he said. Consensus is key because otherwise everything BDAC recommends will fall apart, he said. "Unless you get agreement, cities don't make money, networks don't deploy and the public hates it." Industry complains cities are dragging their feet, but officials are often under political pressure for networks to be deployed, he said.

Crown Castle Associate General Counsel Robert Millar said there's no question the FCC needs to do something on siting. Localities are “a significant hurdle,” he said. Work by the FCC and BDAC will help, but legislation is needed, with states including Michigan, Washington, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin considering legislation, Millar said.

A top priority for Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is getting an auction scheduled for the high-frequency bands needed for 5G, said Umair Javed, her wireless aide, at PLI. “We’d like to stop treating these bands as an abstraction” and get them on the calendar for auction, he said. FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry said Thursday the agency's position remains that the agency can hold no major spectrum auctions until Congress approves legislative language that would allow auction deposits to be sent directly to the Treasury Department (see 1710240065).

Getting more mid-band spectrum in play is key, especially since those frequencies are being made available in other countries, Javed said. China, Germany, Japan and South Korea are looking at the frequencies, he said. But many of the bands are also congested in the U.S., he said. “We don’t really have a good understanding of what’s in there and how it’s being used.” With 5G, industry is looking at connection speeds that are 10 times faster, the aide noted, "to change the way we communicate.”

The standards process is moving forward as expected, said Jared Carlson, North America vice president-government affairs and public policy at Ericsson. Early trials are underway, he said. “The hiccups along the way are trying to get the world onboard with some of spectrum ideas, the bands in particular.” Mostly, 5G will sell itself, he said. Carlson noted some countries in Europe are reluctant to invest in 5G because of the huge investments they’re making in 4G. “LTE is far from over,” he said. “It’s a very valuable technology.” The biggest hurdle will be getting the rest of the world to move as fast as the U.S., he said.

A top focus for T-Mobile has been low-band spectrum and getting more spectrum available generally, said Kathleen Ham, senior vice president. “Boy has it made a difference for us," she said. The low-band spectrum enabled T-Mobile to enter new markets, she said. “We’ve launched service in Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota,” she said. “That’s a great story coming out of that low-band spectrum.”

Ham noted she didn’t have cell coverage inside the panel's conference room. “It’s annoying,” she said. “This is an example of where a small cell in this room could really make a difference.”

The satellite industry sees 3G, 4G and 5G as essentially the same and not a unique technology, said Inmarsat Director-Regulatory and Public Policy Ethan Lucarelli. “It’s not one network technology, it’s not one frequency band, it’s not even one business model,” he said. Fifth generation “is about the user experience,” he said. “It’s capacity, it’s latency,” he said. “It’s also ubiquity, it’s reliability and robustness.”

PLI Notebook

Posting draft items early hasn’t had any negative effect on negotiations at the FCC, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told PLI. Concerns were raised that publishing draft items complicated negotiations on the eighth floor among commissioners, he said. “That’s just not true.” For the November meeting, “substantial changes” were made to some items after they circulated, he said. O’Rielly hopes the FCC will also post many other items when they circulate regardless of whether they're on a meeting agenda, he said, as he told us earlier as part of a story on the draft publications (see 1711060006). O’Rielly said he has been very pleased with Pai as chairman. “For me, this year has gone swimmingly, no surprise,” he said. “There is a fresh breath of air at the commission,” O’Rielly said, noting he's a friend of former Chairman Tom Wheeler. Wheeler “is a somewhat stiff individual” and “the tension on the eighth floor was mighty,” he said. Wheeler didn't comment. O’Rielly said he still has a list of 24 areas where he would like additional process changes.