FCC Stopped License Renewals for T Band, Offers Little Clarity, EWA Complains
The Enterprise Wireless Alliance is questioning why the FCC quietly stopped processing applications for Part 90 license renewals for the T band. A provision in the 2012 spectrum law mandates public safety agencies move off the 470-512 band by 2021 (see 1808020051). EWA complained the FCC won’t contingently renew the licenses and never released a notice saying it won’t renew licenses. The agency didn’t comment.
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“They did do it quietly, they just started doing it,” EWA President Mark Crosby told us. “Everyone in the T band knows that there’s a pending rulemaking … on how to implement the act.” Licensees understand renewals are contingent on when the FCC decides to clear the band, he said: “They know it’s not forever.” Public safety and business/industrial land transportation (B/ILT) licensees in New York and 10 other major cities use the spectrum. Crosby said in five of the cities, B/ILT is the primary user.
Last month, GAO recommended Congress allow public safety to continue using the band (see 1906210050). Congress looked at the future of the T band in hearings (see 1710120053) and members sought legislation allowing licensees to stay (see 1811060047).
EWA “has become aware” that the Wireless and Public Safety bureaus were “directed not to process applications for renewal of Part 90 licenses operating on spectrum” in the band, it said, posted Tuesday in docket 13-42 and emailed the next day. “It is unfortunate that the Bureaus did not consult the industry before deciding to hold T-Band renewal applications or notify the industry that the decision had been made.”
Individual licensees uncovered the issue “when they became concerned that their routine renewal applications had not been processed,” EWA said: “This resulted in multiple phone calls and inquiries to the staff in Gettysburg and to Frequency Advisory Committees like EWA. Time was wasted responding to each inquiry individually, a process that could have been avoided had the industry been advised in advance of the Bureaus’ plan.” The FCC previously was processing applications, with renewal dates through 2022 and beyond, Crosby said.
“It is not clear why these renewal applications are being treated differently than those granted over the seven years since the Act was enacted,” the letter argued: “Should T-Band licensees understand that a license renewed, for example, in 2017 or 2018 -- and therefore effective until 2027 or 2028 -- has a different legal status than one whose renewal is now being held by the FCC, presumably for the next several years? If so, it would be helpful to understand what that legal distinction is." The EWA lists the filing number of four B/ILT licensee applications held in pending status after applying for renewals -- by Mobile Relay Associates, Repeater Network, A Beep and Highland Wireless.
Land Mobile Communications Council President David Smith said his company, Forest Industries Telecommunications, agrees with EWA. “Business Industrial licensees have been left out in the cold by the T-band auction order,” Smith told us: “Very little consideration has been given as to who will pay for the relocation costs associated with the re-tuning and re-configuring of critical communication infrastructure. … In the markets where T-band is licensed, comparable replacement spectrum simply does not exist.”
The FCC answers lots of questions in a fact sheet on the band, but parts could be clearer, said Tom Struble, R Street Institute tech policy manager. The regulator says there’s a freeze on new licenses, but “it's a bit ambiguous” on whether a renewal is a new authorization for further T-band operations, he said. “Further guidance from the FCC to clarify that point would have been helpful, as existing T-Band licensees were evidently a bit confused,” he said. “The T-band dispute is taking place in Congress these days, as the FCC is duty bound to follow the timeline in the 2012 spectrum act and repurpose the T band according to that schedule,” Struble said: “GAO and some members of Congress have suggested that T band shouldn't be repurposed after all, but it's up to Congress to make that call.”
“There’s no way a T-band reallocation is going to go smoothly,” said Doug Brake, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy: “It would be best if Congress could step in and at least give the FCC more time to determine if an auction even makes sense here anymore. But in the meantime, there is little reason to shut off licensees, especially without clear notice.”