3.1-3.45 GHz Band Auction Prep Is a 'Huge Lift': DOD

“There are some challenges we have coming before us,” Harris said. Sharing 3.1-3.45 GHz is “going to be a huge lift, and it’s going to be extremely important that everyone gets involved -- from FCC, NTIA, DOD as well as the private sector,” she said.

The Pentagon also needs spectrum "in different bands, to train, to fight and win,” Harris said. Sharing policies must give DOD “sufficient regulatory protection and cannot result in loss of access to spectrum needed,” she said.

“We need a national spectrum strategy that involves all major governmental stakeholders,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Commerce “has been working closely with the FCC to ensure that the wireless industry has the spectrum it needs to fully deploy 5G across the country,” she said: “But we need more collaboration.”

The 3.45 GHz auction, which starts next month, shows “how rapidly the federal government can act when all stakeholders work together,” said Charles Cooper, NTIA Office of Spectrum Management associate administrator. The citizens broadband radio service band is significant, demonstrating “the commercial viability of a dynamic spectrum access approach,” he said. NTIA wants to “build” on CBRS with “a common, scalable platform” to enable sharing, he said.

DOD is taking a “proactive and constructive approach” on sharing the 3.1-3.45 GHz band, Cooper said. “It takes cooperation and work by all partners involved -- the NTIA, the FCC, and all the federal agencies -- to respond to commercial spectrum requirements in a timely but careful way,” he said. Clearing spectrum won’t “get any easier if we take an honest look at the relocation costs,” he said. “We must explore other methods including dynamic spectrum access and sharing.”

The 3.1-3.45 GHz band “has real potential to not just bring new wireless broadband capacity online but also the potential to foster new innovative uses for consumers, businesses, cities and universities,” said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. “It’s essential that portions of this band be made available for commercial use” and that idea has “broad bipartisan support,” he said. Federal agencies affected by reallocation decisions “should be at the table early and often, and we should all recommit to a process that encourages that,” he said.

Mid-Band

“It’s not hard to get spectrum policy wrong,” warned FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We’ve seen how simply focusing on the wrong spectrum bands at the wrong time can drive up spectrum costs to unprecedented levels.” The FCC has refocused on mid-band, she said. “Our pivot to mid-band spectrum will be a game changer for 5G in the United States,” she said: “It will foster more competition, wider coverage and better performance.”

The FCC is committed to making more mid-band spectrum available for 5G, but also needs to consider the costs, said Umair Javed, wireless aide to Rosenworcel. “We have to tackle the fact that both prices and reserve prices for spectrum are tending upwards and what does that mean for competition,” he said. “History tells us that these kinds of spectrum prices … correlate with lower quality services and higher consumer bills, and it can mean spectrum goes unused.” Opportunities for clearing are “diminishing” and the focus needs to shift to new sharing paradigms, he said.

The FCC’s initial focus on high-band had “consequences” for security, Javed said. “It put us far behind in developing a market for secure 5G alternatives in the mid-band, and we saw other companies like Huawei and ZTE really move in to that market,” he said: “We’re still dealing with those consequences today.”

Republicans fired back. “Here's a prediction: this FCC will not hold a single mid-band spectrum auction outside of those proceedings that our FCC started,” emailed former Chairman Ajit Pai: “A bonus prediction: this FCC will not free up a single additional megahertz of mid-band spectrum for Wi-Fi outside of the massive amount of unlicensed spectrum our FCC made available. An easy way to disprove these predictions would be to publish a spectrum calendar with specifics on spectrum bands and timing -- an idea we abruptly stopped hearing about this past January."

“We’re proud of the FCC’s unprecedented work to free up mid-band spectrum over the past few years,” emailed a spokesperson for Commissioner Brendan Carr: “We’re all for policies that can match the pace and cadence of the FCC’s prior efforts on mid-band spectrum.”

The information DOD was able to make available before the AWS-3 and CBRS auctions made licenses more viable, said Lynna McGrath, with its spectrum office. “We’re looking at how can we continue these collaborative efforts, to have these technical conversations,” she said. But there are restrictions on how much data can be shared “particularly when we’re talking about an operational system, a weapons system,” she said: “Sometimes, the type of information that’s being requested starts to reveal vulnerabilities on that equipment.”

The Biden administration is focused on continuing investments in advanced wireless research, said Evelyn Remaley, acting NTIA administrator. “We’re proud of our work so far to enable 5G, but we recognize there’s more to be done and 6G is just around the corner.”