Pai to Press 5G 'Fast Plan' on Spectrum, Infrastructure, Regulatory 'Modernization'
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai touted his "Fast Plan" to spur 5G. "We're aiming to free up more spectrum over the next 15 months than is currently held" by every mobile provider combined, he noted Friday in a Federalist Society speech largely tracking written remarks. He said low earth orbit satellite constellations, like those approved Thursday (see 1811150028), could be a "game changer" for broadband-hungry areas.
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Pai said the FCC "has been extremely aggressive" in making airwaves available. He noted the agency just launched the first of two high-band auctions -- of the 28 GHz band, to be followed by the 24 GHz band -- and is on track to auction off three more bands next year. The agency plans to hold a single auction of the 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz bands in the second half of 2019, he said Aug. 2.
Bid commitments reached $77.5 million in the 28 GHz auction Friday, with provisionally winning bids on 2,138 of 3,072 licenses, said the FCC's dashboard. Three more rounds are scheduled for Monday.
Spectrum won't matter if there isn't infrastructure to carry 5G traffic, Pai said Friday, noting agency orders to speed siting approvals and combat "arbitrage" fees of local authorities, as industry seeks to deploy an estimated 800,000 new cellsites by 2025, most of them small cells. A September order "sets a reasonable 60-day shot clock for cities to rule on small-cell siting applications and reasonable limits on siting fees -- limits that allow localities to cover their costs." He noted rule "modernization" to speed copper-to-fiber transitions, facilitate pole attachments through "one-touch, make ready," and overturn "utility" regulation of broadband providers while protecting a "free and open internet," drawing applause.
Jamie Susskind, chief of staff to Commissioner Brendan Carr, said winning the 5G race and deploying it here first "is about economic leadership for the next decade." China is "moving aggressively" on 5G, she said. "Countries like China don't have to worry about localities and ordinances," said Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile senior vice president, who said the agency was trying to create the right incentives.
T-Mobile's planned buy of Sprint would create a stronger competitor to AT&T and Verizon, combining T-Mobile low-band spectrum with Sprint's mid-band spectrum, Ham said. "A lot of people say our merger is about going from four to three" national mobile wireless competitors, she said. "We see it as going from two to three." She said cable and wireless companies "are bucking up against each other more and more," as cable expands into wireless.
Eliminate barriers to wireline broadband deployment, including those created by local cable franchising authorities (see 1811150027), urged Dane Snowden, NCTA chief operating officer. "The Pai commission has done a great job on media modernization."
Addressing net neutrality in the absence of FCC regulation, Snowden said, "No one is into blocking and throttling. ... We're not in the business of doing that and we don't want to be in that business." He said policymakers and stakeholders should work out a compromise. Ham said, "To be clear: we don't throttle and we don't block." She said T-Mobile and others manage networks, something she didn't believe would go away in a 5G world despite increased network capacity.
The Center for Democracy & Technology is "deeply concerned" about a "right-to-be-forgotten" framework in Europe, said CEO Nuala O'Connor. She said it would mostly be "people with money" and government officials who would be able to use the framework to delete internet information about themselves. "We don't want the private sector to become the librarians of history," she said.