Wireless ISP Association officials met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and staff on 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service spectrum. WISPA hopes the FCC will stick with small, census tract-sized priority access licenses (PALs) in the band. If the FCC adopts larger license sizes, and lengthy license terms, as proposed in an October NPRM (see 1710240050), only “a few large mobile wireless carriers” would bid for PALs, WISPA said. “Modifying the PAL rules in the manner proposed … would only benefit the mobile-carrier use case to the detriment of all other use cases.” Federated Wireless also reported on a series of meetings at the FCC on the CBRS band and the importance of quick FCC action on certifying spectrum access system administrators and environmental sensing capability operators in the band and completing the NPRM. CEO Iyad Tarazi and others from the company met with Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel and aides to the other commissioners. “Federated alone has conducted 30+ technical trials, and has a number of important field trials underway with Charter, Verizon, American Tower, and ARRIS/Ruckus Wireless,” said a filing in docket 17-258. “Federated supports the goal of concluding the NPRM proceeding by the end of Q1 2018. Federated emphasized the importance of resolving remaining CBRS issues in a manner that preserves access to CBRS spectrum for as many users -- and use cases -- as possible.”
NTIA should look into whether federal agencies with compatible missions and using similar technologies could move into frequency sharing and consolidation. That and other Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee recommendations are heading to NTIA for consideration. CSMAC members Friday adopted subcommittee findings on 5G, band key characteristics, enforcement and spectrum efficiency. Along with recommendations for more emphasis on receiver standards and NTIA opening notices of inquiry on bands that could be considered for sharing (see 1711150019), members recommended NTIA look for ways to make federal procurement processes more responsive to market-based incentives to invest in new technology.
House Communications Subcommittee members universally lauded potential benefits of deploying 5G technology during a Thursday hearing, with members of both parties emphasizing the need for the U.S. to take a leading role in advancing the technology. But the hearing also featured debate on proposals on Capitol Hill, the FCC and elsewhere to pre-empt state, local and tribal antenna siting rules, as expected (see 1711150052). Senate Commerce Committee staffers are evaluating a draft bill from Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, that would ease siting requirements (see 1710310057).
CenturyTel Broadband Services got an experimental license from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology to test various prototype radio systems in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service band. The CBRS tests are to take place in Oregon and Washington state. CenturyTel sought confidential treatment of its application.
The 5.9 GHz band likely is the best near-term opportunity for additional Wi-Fi spectrum, said speakers at WiFi Forward discussions Monday. A benefit of the band is lack of significant deployed incumbents there, as opposed to the C-band, said NCTA Associate General Counsel Danielle Pineres, noting that, paired with the 6 GHz band, it could represent a wide swath of spectrum. Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said the change in administration at the Transportation Department could move things along since the Republican administration brings a suspicion of technology mandates and there are LTE options in the market.
Commissioner Brendan Carr told a Competitive Carriers Association conference Thursday he has been tasked by Chairman Ajit Pai with overseeing the FCC’s push to overhaul the agency’s wireless infrastructure rules. Pai said the first of the wireless infrastructure items will get a vote at the Nov. 16 FCC meeting (see 1710260049). Carr's remarks were streamed from Fort Worth.
The FCC approved an NPRM Tuesday proposing to rewrite parts of rules for the shared 3.5 GHz band, over a dissent by Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn concurred rather than approve, saying she would have preferred the FCC left the rules as is. The votes were as predicted, with all three Republicans voting yes (see 1710180043). Both Democrats voted against the FCC allowing stations to host studios outside their communities of license (see 1710240062).
Partial economic area (PEA) or other larger license sizes would mean carriers are the only ones likely to buy priority access licenses (PALs) in the 3.5 GHz, Citizens Broadband Radio Service band, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, in a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Commissioners are to consider an NPRM proposing larger license sizes and other changes to the citizens broadband radio service rules at their Oct. 24 meeting, with Democrats skeptical of changes (see 1710120009). The Los Angeles PEA covers the entire metropolitan area, includes Riverside County and extends to the Nevada border, Calabrese said in a filing in docket 17-258. “It would be far easier for carriers to assemble larger contiguous areas by acquiring census tracts than it would be for hundreds or thousands of other potential users noted above to either win a PEA or county license at auction,” Calabrese said. “Subleasing small areas of spectrum from a big mobile carrier, through a secondary market transaction, is unrealistic both because of high transaction costs and because carriers have a disincentive to allow competitors with or substitutes for their services to access spectrum at a reasonable price.” The Wireless ISP Association, meanwhile, said the FCC should keep the current rules in place. A plan backed by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly “and the mobile industry would overturn pro-innovation rules adopted unanimously by the FCC -- twice -- in 2014 and 2015,” WISPA said in a Monday statement. “Dozens of companies are already making significant investments in the CBRS band, counting on the current rules.” WISPA also urged the FCC to approve the Broadband Access Coalition’s proposal for the 3.7-4.2 GHz band (see 1706210044). “Under mobile industry pressure, the FCC is prioritizing a much broader and more time-consuming review of multiple spectrum bands, which would lead to years of regulatory delay and no near-term progress for rural America,” WISPA said.
Although dissents on NPRMs aren’t common, FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel continue to have big questions on the pending 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service NPRM, set for a vote Oct. 24, industry and agency officials said. CBRS rule changes primarily affect only one of the three tiers of the FCC’s sharing plan for the band, the priority access license (PAL) tier. Under the sharing plan, federal incumbents, followed by PAL holders and then general access users, would have top priority to use the spectrum.
The 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service Band has the potential to become a key band for 5G, Preston Marshall, principal wireless architect at Google, said at the DC5G conference Wednesday. If the FCC allows smaller license sizes, hotels like the Renaissance Washington, where the event took place, can set up their own networks independent of the carriers, Marshall said. “We’ve never had that.”