CBA Facing Mounting Cable Opposition, But Significance Unclear
A growing number of cable operators are lined up against the C-Band Alliance 3.7-4.2 GHz band clearing plan, but opinions differ on whether the opposition is hurting CBA. With CBA seen having Verizon support (see here) and potentially close to also getting AT&T backing, "that's usually been quite convincing to the FCC to move forward," said telecom and satellite consultant Tim Farrar. AT&T said it continues to support the idea of CBA crafting and running an FCC-approved auction (see 1812120010).
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Cable's objections to the CBA plan are likely ultimately about the industry trying to forestall 5G competition to its broadband business, Farrar said. In January during a call with analysts, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said 5G "will serve as ... a fixed broadband replacement project" within three to five years. Cox -- which joined Charter Communications and Comcast in opposing the CBA plan (see 1902250064 and 1903040042) -- emailed that wireless carriers already are deploying 5G services and the availability of the C-band block "simply isn’t a determining factor on the pace of 5G deployment." Cox also said it's working with carriers to backhaul their 5G solutions via fiber to traditional towers and small cells, and its network "will actually enable 5G."
A lawyer involved in satellite and spectrum issues said, given all the C-band stakeholders, CBA will need more support, though it's not clear where that will come from. A cable executive said the CBA should have been lining up allies months ago.
"The tide is definitely turning against the 'private sale' proposal, both on the Hill and at the FCC," emailed Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. New America opposed the CBA plan.
New C-band licenses should come through a competitive bidding process and there are insufficient details in the CBA plan, Cox said in a docket 18-122 posting last week. It said the CBA plan would have the FCC "abandon its critical obligation" to balance different interests in the band, especially given the complexity when hundreds of incumbents will be affected. It said an FCC-managed process could be as fast or faster than the CBA's. The CBA didn't comment.
Charter, in a posting Friday on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, said the FCC could exercise its authority to transition some of the earth station users to fiber, which would maximize the amount of spectrum to be repurposed. Comcast, in meetings with the Rosenworcel aide and with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai, said it repeated its concerns with the CBA plan.
But T-Mobile's plan for a C-band incentive auction "is fool's gold" since one of its fundamentals is earth station operators also taking part, even though the Communications Act doesn't allow that because receive-only earth station operators are not licensees, CBA said in a posting Friday. Even if they could, the 17,000 earth stations and hundreds of additional participants would just slow 5G deployment -- which is exactly what T-Mobile wants since it then would be the first mover on 5G with its mid-band spectrum, it said. The T-Mobile proposal "vastly underestimates the herculean challenge" of getting earth station operators to agree on purchase prices per partial economic area. T-Mobile emailed that the FCC in the NPRM recognized the right of the earth station registrants to participate in an auction and that unlike the CBA proposal, "an incentive auction complies with the Communications Act and is the only truly market based plan that’s been proposed.”
NTCA, in an ex parte posting on meetings with aides to Pai and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said it still hasn't been made clear how a private sale approach "would ensure transparency, inclusivity or competitive access to spectrum."