The FCC is working through comments on the future of the 4.9 GHz band and likely has reached no conclusions, industry and FCC officials told us. The Phoenix Center argued Monday 4.9 GHz should be allocated to FirstNet, saying that would be good for the economy and promote jobs.
Howard Buskirk
Howard Buskirk, Executive Senior Editor, joined Warren Communications News in 2004, after covering Capitol Hill for Telecommunications Reports. He has covered Washington since 1993 and was formerly executive editor at Energy Business Watch, editor at Gas Daily and managing editor at Natural Gas Week. Previous to that, he was a staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Greenville News. Follow Buskirk on Twitter: @hbuskirk
The FCC needs to stand strong as its decisions reallocating spectrum bands remain “under attack” from other federal agencies, Commissioner Brendan Carr said at an event Thursday, sponsored by CTA and WifiForward. The challenge isn’t new in the Joe Biden administration, he said. The Communications Act makes clear that the FCC should decide how spectrum is allocated, he said. “As spectrum becomes more important, as connectivity becomes more important” other agencies are “effectively trying to challenge that 1930s congressional decision that experts at the FCC should call the balls and strikes here,” he said. Carr sees artificial and virtual reality, and the need for spectrum to connect AR/VR goggles to the internet, as key drivers of continuing demand for Wi-Fi. “At the FCC, we’ve tried to do our part to make sure there is plenty of” unlicensed “spectrum out there,” he said: “We’ve got to continue to stay strong” and “push back against efforts to encroach on the FCC’s expertise.” Reps. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., and Bob Latta, R-Ohio, chairs of the Congressional Wi-Fi Caucus, said the FCC has done a good job making more spectrum available for Wi-Fi and that push needs to continue. “The value of unlicensed spectrum is absolutely undeniable,” McNerney said. Opening the 5.9 and 6 GHz bands for unlicensed was critical, he said. “We can’t rest there,” he said. We have to continue to push the commission to open up more portions of the spectrum for unlicensed use, and that will continue to push innovation,” he said. “What would have happened” without unlicensed spectrum during the COVID-19 pandemic, Latta asked. “Tele-education, telework, just people staying in touch with their loved ones, those are the things that we came to rely on,” he said. “Think where we were 10 years ago, and then five years ago” and where we are today, he said: “We have a great reliance on unlicensed technology. … It’s a necessity now.” The U.S. doesn’t want to follow other countries, “we want to be the leaders,” he said. “Unlicensed spectrum supports a wide range of innovations, from drones and [VR] headsets, to mobile payments and wearables,” said David Grossman, CTA vice president-regulatory affairs.
Russia, under growing pressure internationally since its invasion of Ukraine, is also taking hits at the ITU. Industry officials said it's not a sure thing, but U.S. candidate Doreen Bogdan-Martin’s chances of being elected ITU secretary-general are likely enhanced because her opponent is Russian nominee Rashid Ismailov (see 2201310055). Gerald Gross was the last American to hold that job, from 1960 to 1965. Bogdan-Martin would be first woman to be elected to the top spot at the ITU.
New America’s Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge warned the FCC’s proposed enhanced competition incentive program (ECIP) is likely to have only minimal impact. Comments on a November Further NPRM (see 2111180071) were posted Tuesday in docket 19-38. Other commenters also sought changes to the FCC’s proposed approach, aimed at making more spectrum available for small carriers and tribes.
The FCC plans a 2.5 GHz auction starting in July, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel told the Mobile World Congress Tuesday. The FCC has been under pressure to announce a start date, with its auction authority expiring Sept. 30 (see 2202110056). Rosenworcel also told the conference the FCC will issue a notice of inquiry on receiver performance and standards (see 2202180054) in April. Speakers at the Barcelona event said 6 GHz is emerging as a key band for 5G and Wi-Fi globally.
The FCC’s newly reconstituted Technology Advisory Council met for the first time Monday, with a new focus on 6G, directed by FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. New TAC Chairman Dean Brenner, a former Qualcomm executive, said TAC’s work is more important than ever due to the reliance on broadband since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago. The first meeting was initially expected in October (see 2107230039).
U.S. carriers are falling behind much of the world on open radio access networks, said John Baker, Mavenir senior vice president-business development, in an interview. “The train has left the station,” he said: “Pretty much all of Europe,” parts of Africa and the Middle East are embracing ORAN. “The sad part of it is the U.S. has still made no more progress.” Dish Network is the only major U.S. carrier deploying ORAN, he said. “We’re waiting for the rip-and-replace monies issue to get sorted out because ORAN can save the U.S. taxpayer a lot of money,” he said. The FCC plans to announce cuts on a $1.9 billion program for removing Huawei and ZTE from carrier network in June, including proposals using ORAN (see 2202090031). Mavenir announced last year it’s working with Montana’s Triangle Communications to upgrade its network. Mavenir last week unveiled OpenBeam, a new suite of ORAN compliant radios. The company invested in “high performance areas” for radios and is working with others on radio designs, Baker said. “At the end of the day, Mavenir is a software company,” he said. “We’ve invested some of our dollars to seed the open RAN ecosystem to get this radio design, development and manufacturing going,” he said. “Hopefully this is the start of a bring-back-to-America approach of radios that can then be sold in the open-RAN community to operators on a global basis,” he said: “The U.S. has the skill set to do this, and we’ve demonstrated that.” One of the greatest needs for ORAN is radios with open interfaces that are 3rd Generation Partnership Project approved, Baker said. “The global market potentially needs tens to hundreds” of radio models, he said. Nokia and Ericsson offer an alternative to the Chinese providers, but their radios “aren’t open RAN, and they’re not willing to share, at this point, their radios with others in terms of ensuring a diverse supply chain,” Baker said.
The FCC’s Disability Advisory Committee approved reports Thursday on real-time text (RTT) on wireline networks and telecommunications relay services on videoconferencing platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Webex. All FCC meetings have used a video platform since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic almost two years ago.
The FCC got some support for use of an ascending-clock auction for the 2.5 GHz band, the only imminent auction of spectrum for 5G, in comments filed at the FCC, mostly posted Thursday. AT&T and groups concerned about bidding by the smallest players, prefer a single-round, sealed-bid auction. The agency is trying to start and end the sale before its auction authority expires Sept. 30.
The alarm industry had outages after AT&T started shutting down its 3G network Tuesday, Connect America Chief Operating Officer John Brady told us Wednesday, speaking on behalf of the Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC). As expected, the FCC didn’t order a delay (see 2202180067). “Clearly the sunset has begun,” Brady said: “We have not been told by AT&T or given any of their plans yet, which is totally unfortunate.” The FCC and some members of Congress, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are pressing the AT&T to provide more information, he said. AT&T and Schumer’s office didn’t comment.