FCC Moving Closer to Order on C Band, With Auction First Half of Next Year
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to propose a private auction of the C band, along the lines of what was proposed by the C-Band Alliance, for a vote at the Dec. 12 commissioners’ meeting, said industry officials. The order would provide some 300 MHz for 5G through private auction in 2020's first half. The FCC would likely allow no combinatorial bidding and sell all the spectrum in one auction, or possibly two, as long as there's certainty on timing of the second, the officials said. The proposal also calls for partial economic area licenses, as sought by CBA.
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Details are evolving. For an order to be ready for the December meeting, it would have to be circulated within about six weeks. Other industry lawyers said a vote could slip to the Jan. 30 meeting. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said after the September FCC meeting he opposes a private auction, like the CBA plan (see 1909260053). The FCC and CBA didn’t comment Thursday.
“Wireless carriers desperately need the C band for 5G,” said Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford. “As my research has shown, a private auction is probably the most efficient approach to repurposing the band, but there are devils lurking in the details, such as the transmission needs of the television industry,” Ford said: “Ideally, the commission will trust the choices of private actors to proceed in an efficient and timely manner, imposing relatively few constraints.”
Analyst Blair Levin said the reports are in keeping with what New Street predicts. Questions remain, he said: “It's unlikely that the FCC will agree with the CBA proposal for a sealed bid, single round auction, and there are a lot of details as to the auction that the FCC is likely to want to weigh in on, such as reserve prices, spectrum blocks, geographic sizes.” Also unclear is "who gets what portion of the money," he said.
“If the FCC is recognizing the wisdom of clearing 300 megahertz or more, that would be a positive development,” emailed Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association, which proposed an alternate plan with America's Communications Association and Charter Communications. “The pro-competition 5G Plus Plan repurposes the most spectrum for its highest and best use, drives fiber into rural America, and generates revenue back to the US taxpayers, all through a transparent and time-tested process,” he said: “Any auction needs to be transparent and fair, and a two-stage process could raise concerns, but we will have to look at any details.”
“If true, it would be an interesting proposal given that we’ve seen nothing in the record that indicates that much spectrum could be cleared while ensuring the protection of video unless there is a fiber component,” an ACA spokesperson said.
The order would reflect Pai's support of secondary markets for spectrum, said Tom Struble, R Street Institute tech policy manager. A private auction approach could work in other bands, too, he said. “An FCC-led auction would be extremely complex and costly to design and administer, a lot like the 600 MHz incentive auctions were, but even more so given the holdout problems created by the full-band full-arc nature of satellite licenses,” Struble said. “The CBA proposal could clear and repurpose a substantial portion of mid-band spectrum in a matter of months and with minimal administrative costs." CBA members are satellite operators. “With this market-based approach, spectrum licenses can naturally flow to their highest and most valuable uses, without the costly and time-consuming government intervention that central planning entails,” he said.
Meetings continue at the agency, per new filings.
CEO James Frownfelter of ABS Global met with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, General Counsel Tom Johnson and others on behalf of some smaller satellite operators not part of the CBA plan. “We described the SSOs’ investments in the U.S. C-band and the importance of their U.S. authorizations to their global satellite businesses,” said filings in docket 18-122 (see here and here). “Each of the SSOs has designed and launched a satellite to serve the U.S. market, obtained authorizations to do so across the entire 500 megahertz of the C-band, and maintained those authorizations in good standing.”
SSOs generally support the CBA proposal, Frownfelter said. He suggested clearing “could be done quickly through the use of compression technology” and “a substantial percentage of auction proceeds” should go to the U.S. Treasury. A filing identifies ABS Global, Hispasat and Claro as other small operators in the proceeding.
New America Wireless Future Program Director Michael Calabrese opposed a private auction, in a meeting with aide to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Calabrese stressed the “feasibility of coordinated sharing between fixed point-to-multipoint operators and existing earth stations.”