FCC Approves Rules for June CBRS Auction, First Sale of Mid-Band Spectrum for 5G
The FCC approved 5-0 draft bidding procedures for the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, which formally schedules a June 25 auction of CBRS licenses. Unlike the C band (see 2002280044), this second mid-band item was approved after a relatively brief discussion without similar political fireworks. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel agreed the process has taken too long. The licenses will be the first mid-band spectrum the FCC has offered for 5G.
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O’Rielly said it's “amazing” how long it has taken to get to an auction of priority access licenses (PALs). “We will finally auction 10 MHz, county-sized licenses with standard license terms that are renewable, providing potential bidders with confidence” that if they invest and follow the rules, “they will be not be at risk of losing their licenses and stranding investment.”
O’Rielly isn’t convinced the FCC is correct to back away from cellular market area-level bidding, but “I must take into account the views of all potential bidders.” The change "should help calm the waters for any remaining complainers, without altering auction participation or results,” he said. The FCC found no support in comments last year on package bidding in the band (see 1910290046). The commission also got assurance the DOD is unlikely to designate other sites that will need protection, he said: “This has become an issue over the last many months as previously unaccounted for sites were suddenly being located and now need to be protected.” The item "signifies that we are ready to move on from the previous debates and tackle the remaining work to be done on this band," he said.
“It never should have taken us this long to get here,” Rosenworcel said: “We started down this road five years ago. … During the intervening years, we hemmed and hawed and revisited some of the fundamentals of our new framework. We lost our nerve and in key ways retreated back to the old.” But the item reflects real progress, she said: “We have the first mid-band auction of the 5G era on the calendar. We have a genuinely creative framework for wireless sharing.”
Chairman Ajit Pai said the CBRS rules adopted in the last administration didn’t do enough to assure a successful auction. “When I became chairman, I knew that we had to change this, particularly to encourage 5G deployment in the band,” he said: Led by O’Rielly, “that’s exactly what we did.”
The order adopts an ascending clock auction format for the auction, with bidding by county, with bidders allowed to bid for no more than four generic blocks per market. The auction “incorporates for the first time in a Commission spectrum auction an ‘activity upper limit’ to mitigate the possibility of a bidder losing bidding eligibility in certain circumstances,” said a news release. It adopts bidding credit caps of $25 million for small businesses and $10 million for rural providers, and a $10 million cap on the overall amount of credits a small business bidder may apply to winning licenses in smaller markets.
“This is more good news for U.S. leadership in 5G,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr. Consumers have access to Apple, Google and Samsung smartphones that use the band, said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg lauded the item and the C-band order. “Today marks another huge step forward as the U.S. aims to keep its global lead in the deployment" of 5G networks, he said.