Replies Oppose Major Changes to Rules for Next High-Band Auction

Hughes Network rejects reject arguments the FCC mandate smaller license sizes here. “The proper timing for RWA to raise its concerns was in a timely filed petition for reconsideration to the Spectrum Frontier Report & Order, not in comments to a docket developing auction procedures,” Hughes said.

RWA generally doesn’t like PEAs, emailed Carri Bennet, RWA counsel. “When PEAs were introduced as part of the 600 MHz auction, RWA was assured by the FCC that it would be a one-time use for a complicated 600 MHz auction process,” Bennet said: “The FCC’s continued use of PEAs is disheartening for those living in rural America as it allows larger, more financially heeled companies to snap up large swaths of spectrum and hold rural areas hostage by not building out to those areas. Rural buildout coverage promises have been broken time and time again. The millimeter band spectrum is more suited to smaller license areas, especially in rural America.”

“The primary purpose of licensing has been to avoid harmful interference,” WISPA President Claude Aiken told us. “Licensing spectrum that only travels a few thousand feet at multi-state areas is overkill. It also shuts out smaller providers that may be interested in acquiring a Census tract or county to build out better broadband, diminishing auction returns.”

T-Mobile wants to reject major changes to the rules, such as larger license sizes or including white spaces spectrum in the auction. But the carrier supported other suggested tweaks. The company said the FCC should treat the upper 37 and 39 GHz bands “as a single product that is separate from the 47 GHz band.” The two bands “together present a unique opportunity in the millimeter wave spectrum, and unencumbered blocks in the bands are largely interchangeable,” T-Mobile said.

“The record overwhelmingly supports the overall framework proposed in the Auction 103 Procedures Notice,” AT&T said. “The Commission has a solid procedural basis to move forward and quickly finalize the auction process proposed for Auction 103.” AT&T said a few suggested tweaks would be helpful. The carrier “generally concurs” with T-Mobile “that having the data file formats earlier is preferable, considering that automated systems and processes may have to be updated based on the specifics of the file formats.” AT&T "also supports T-Mobile’s proposal that the Commission’s Auction Bidding System should, for incumbents, display the bidder’s incentive payments as credits on a round-to- round basis.”

“This spectrum is critical to the deployment of 5G throughout the country and the FCC should do everything in its power to facilitate a robust and efficient auction that will quickly reconfigure the 39 GHz band and get 37, 39, and 47 GHz spectrum into the hands of both incumbent licensees and new entrants,” Verizon said. A few tweaks are needed, it said: “Display and accept bids on only the feasible bidding options in the assignment round” and “publish data file format specifications and sample data files for both the clock and assignment phases as early as possible and certainly before the application deadline.”

With the first two millimeter-wave auctions in the books, Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche told investors Friday that Verizon has jumped out to an early, big lead on high-band spectrum. “There is mmWave plenty of spectrum to go around -- especially as we look at what is coming down the pike,” she wrote: “Auction 103 is scheduled to commence in December 2019, and will include 3.4 GHz of spectrum.” That's more than twice as much as was sold in the first two auctions combined, the analyst said.