The CBRS Alliance is expanding its focus beyond the citizens broadband radio service band and is now the OnGo Alliance. The group will look at 3rd Generation Partnership Project “technologies operating in shared spectrum bands around the globe.” The FCC, NTIA and DOD “are actively considering other bands for sharing,” said Executive Director Alan Ewing: “Additionally, the Alliance is being contacted by international organizations that would like to engage and become affiliated.”
The FCC’s C-band auction appears likely to become the largest FCC spectrum auction in history, surpassing the AWS-3 auction five years ago, which brought in $41.3 billion in provisionally winning bids (see 1501300051). The rising numbers likely indicate AT&T and Dish Network are joining Verizon as major bidders in the auction, experts said Monday. The auction hit $50.84 billion Monday after 38 rounds.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to tee up several items for a busy Jan. 13 open meeting, his last on the commission, industry and FCC officials said. The meeting is expected to be 5G heavy, including a notice on a 2.5 GHz auction and possibly a 3.45-3.55 GHz and 12 GHz item. Also likely, Pai could use the meeting to complete action on the latest Communications Act Section 706 report (see 2012160051) and other items he wants to finalize as chairman. Pai’s blog on the meeting is due Tuesday, with draft items to be posted Wednesday.
Google urged the FCC to move forward on an incumbent-informing spectrum sharing system operated by DOD for the citizens broadband radio service and adjacent 3.45-3.55 GHz band. “Such a system would notify authorized non-government users when they need to temporarily cease commercial operations in all or portions of the 3.45-3.55 GHz band to protect government operations” and would “avoid spectrum waste” inherent in the environmental sensing capability framework used in CBRS, said a filing posted Friday in docket 19-348.
With the 28th round of the C-band auction complete Thursday, gross auction proceeds stand at $21.5 billion, per the FCC Auction 107 public reporting system. The demand for C band relative to supply is larger than it was for the citizens broadband radio service, and this could be a protracted auction, Citi analyst Michael Rollins wrote investors Thursday. He said the three national wireless operators likely are active bidders, seeking 60 to 160 MHz each.
The New York Power Authority is exploring numerous spectrum bands as it looks to put 150,000 sensor points throughout its network online, CEO Gil Quiniones said Friday on a webinar sponsored by the U.S. Energy Association. Morgan O'Brien, executive chairman of Anterix, said utility interest in the 900 MHz band has been strong. NYPA is the nation's largest public power provider.
Reallocate the 3.45-3.55 GHz band based on flexible use rules, similar to those in the C band, CTIA told the FCC in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 19-348. Carriers offered similar advice, while others said sharing would mean faster use of the spectrum. Commissioners sought comment in a Further NPRM approved 5-0 in September (see 2009300034). “Action is essential to further promoting nationwide, full-power, wide-area 5G service, which will drive a dynamic 5G ecosystem across the United States,” CTIA said. The group opposed rules based on sharing in the citizens broadband radio service band: “While the CBRS framework shows promise and offers new opportunities, it is subject to lower power limits, a complex spectrum sharing scheme, and other technical limitations.” T-Mobile said CBRS-style sharing is “antithetical” to DOD’s process in making the band available. That process “determined that the spectrum can be cleared over the majority of the contiguous United States with targeted protections for federal users.” The FCC is well aware that “CBRS power levels and narrower channels would hamper development of the 3.45-3.55 GHz band as a true 5G band because the power levels are significantly lower than standard commercial wireless networks and the smaller channel sizes are not optimized for wide-bandwidth, low-latency 5G applications,” Verizon commented. View 3.45-3.55 GHz as a “first step toward making the entire 3.3-3.55 GHz band available for commercial flexible use,” the Competitive Carriers Association said. Federated Wireless argued for sharing. A sharing framework “is the only path to commercial use in the band that is fast, equitable, and supportive of a diverse set of use cases, leading to the most expeditious and intensive use of the band,” Federated said: “Extension of the CBRS sharing framework to the 3.45 GHz band will reduce coordination burdens on both federal and commercial users, while avoiding the interference problems that the vast majority of commenters predict will occur should the proposed rules be adopted.” The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance agreed: "Extending the existing CBRS framework would be the most expedient way to make this critical spectrum available for commercial 5G operations, rather than waiting for a more complicated and time-consuming clearing and auction process.” In the CBRS auction, 10 utilities submitted winning bids totaling more than $174 million for 371 priority access licenses, the Utilities Technology Council said. “Adopt county-based licenses and auction the licenses in 10 megahertz blocks, which will promote opportunities to build upon the success of the CBRS auction by enabling CBRS licensees to more easily combine their CBRS spectrum with the 3.45-3.55 GHz band.”
The FCC’s C-band auction opened Tuesday with $1.9 billion in bids after the initial two bidding rounds. The auction continues Wednesday with three rounds. Most observers are focused on Verizon and how much it bids as the major carrier with the least mid-band spectrum. The auction opened despite a late challenge from aviation interests raising interference concerns. Earlier in the day, a court ruled it won't intervene in related FCC activities (see 2012080020).
A 15-year agreement with T-Mobile will add $17 billion in contracted future revenue to American Tower’s order book, said American Tower Chief Financial Officer Rod Smith Monday at a UBS financial conference. With the C-band auction starting Tuesday, Smith sees the spectrum as a “pretty essential piece of the 5G deployments.” With clearing taking some time, deployments will start in 2021's second half, he projected. The citizens broadband radio service band will be mostly deployed indoors and could present growth opportunities, he said: “We do have a pretty extensive in-building network.” Smith expects some Dish Network business as it deploys a 5G network. “Whether we lease our sites to Dish on a site-by-site basis or if we have some sort of a holistic agreement, either way we’re fine with as long as the terms and conditions are right, the pricing is right,” he said.
Wireless ISPs are expected to drive deployment of priority access licenses in the citizens broadband radio service band, likely being the first to deploy after the FCC finishes assigning licenses from the PAL auction that ended Aug. 25. Some larger auction bidders are starting to lay out plans. Experts and others said in interviews that auction winners will likely start to use their licenses in Q1, after the FCC finalizes channel assignments and conveys the licenses.