NTIA's letter to the FCC on Ligado's planned broadband terrestrial low-power service seems to point to no consensus among the federal agencies, we were told. Ligado's requested license modifications are back in FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's lap. The letter seemingly ends consideration by the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (see 1910300050).
Matt Daneman
Matt Daneman, Senior Editor, covers pay TV, cable broadband, satellite, and video issues and the Federal Communications Commission for Communications Daily. He joined Warren Communications in 2015 after more than 15 years at the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, where he covered business among other issues. He also was a correspondent for USA Today. You can follow Daneman on Twitter: @mdaneman
There’s skepticism an FCC incentive auction for the C band is viable since it likely would take longer than alternatives, said C-band panelists Thursday at a Capitol Forum event. Other options include a forward auction with the new licensees required to pay incentives to parties like satellite operators, they said. A third option is an overlay auction, but bidders would want to know how much they're paying for spectrum rights while they're bidding, said AT&T Vice President-Federal Regulatory Hank Hultquist. Whatever type of auction is adopted will likely be a clock auction, he said.
Streamlining evaluation of applications for siting communications facilities on National Forest Service lands and expanded categorical exceptions for environmental reviews were among suggestions the U.S. Forest Service got on updating its permitting practices for communications and broadband infrastructure, in comments posted this week at regulations.gov. CTIA said the agency could streamline the evaluation by incorporating a 270-day clock for communications uses applications, having a system for tracking applications for communications uses, and setting up a 30-year term for communications use authorizations with automatic renewals at recurring 10-year intervals. The Wireless Infrastructure Association also backed codifying that deadline and increasing lease terms to 30 years. WIA said expanding the exemptions to include modifications of less than 20 acres would streamline the application process while helping foster collocations on existing facilities. The Western Governors' Association backed the service's proposal to revise directives to expedite requests for collocating communications uses in or on existing communications facilities and giving the current categorical exclusion more authority for special use authorization. Crown Castle supports expanding the scope of categorical exclusions. The New Mexico Broadcasters Association said the agency needs to avoid adding new review process requirements or facility sharing rules.
The expected January draft order establishing a C-band spectrum auction method might also lay out an incentive payment scheme for the spectrum's stakeholders, such as satellite and earth station operators, said wireless and industry experts and watchers Tuesday evening at an FCBA CLE. But the FCC incentive regime the agency lays out might not be the final word. The chairman's office didn't comment Wednesday.
On the cusp of an expected boom, commercial space sector worries range from a space business "bubble" to outdated rules regimes that require replacing and the need to show investors regulatory burdens are waning, said corporate and government space executives Tuesday at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency is committed to matching the tempo of the commercial satellite industry and avoiding a "Byzantine approval system" that could be a regulatory bottleneck. He remains concerned about prospects for orbital debris. His prepared remarks were later posted.
Commissioner Brendan Carr spent nearly two weeks during Q1 outside the Washington area and away from the FCC, logging more time out of town than any of the other commissioners. That's according to analysis of travel receipts and commissioner calendars Communications Daily obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, and of commissioners' Twitter accounts. The FCC FY 2020 budget estimate included roughly $1.9 million in travel line items, including $304,239 for the chairman’s and commissioners’ offices.
After more than 45 years with the FCC, including 13 as head of the Office of Engineering and Technology, Julius Knapp will retire effective Jan. 3, he said Wednesday. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Knapp "is an FCC institution, and I will miss him for his expertise, his leadership, and his friendship." Knapp was named OET deputy chief in May 2001 and chief in October 2006. "I've loved it," Knapp told us. He said, with his wife retiring and after more than 45 years with the agency, the timing was right. He said OET leadership transition "will be addressed in due course." Former Chairman Tom Wheeler emailed that Knapp "is a National Treasure," and has been "a guide for Chairman after Chairman as the world evolved from analog to digital. Forty-five years at the FCC means Julie was pre-G; he has seen it all." Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said Knapp has been "a role model for me and countless other FCC employees [and] the gold standard for civil servants." The FCC "faces a monumental loss," Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said. Knapp helped "to lead our nation’s communications policy across many Administrations and with so varied a set of Commissioners." Knapp "is such a fantastic authority, a terrific teacher, and an extraordinary colleague whose input has improved countless decisions at the agency," said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. Commissioner Brendan Carr called Knapp "one of the most consequential public servants the federal government has known." With most agency staffers lawyers, “Julie's knowledge & advice were critical in making sound policy,” tweeted Gigi Sohn, fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy, who was at the FCC under Wheeler. “One of the few things people could still agree on in D.C. is the integrity of Julie's engineering analysis,” said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. The Wireless ISP Association and Qualcomm also had accolades.
Long the home of only one satellite operator, non-voice non-geostationary (NVNG) bands are getting increased commercial interest due to evolving small-satellite technology, satellite lawyers told us. The FCC completed an NVNG UHF band processing round last month and is expected to undertake a VHF one in response to a Myriota petition (see 1911190002), we were told.
The FCC is "solidly on track" for a 2020 C-band auction, said Commissioner Brendan Carr in an interview with The Communicators, posted online Friday and to have aired on C-SPAN over the weekend. Noting concerns that such an auction might be three or more years out, he said "that's not going to happen" due to the auction's being such an agency priority. “A lot of regulators right now are struggling with a lack of vision” on 5G, and he said it will be more consequential than the transition from analog to digital. He said that lack of vision is reflected in opposition to T-Mobile buying Sprint. Support of deals like it shows "you understand where technology is going," he said: "A lot of consumers aren't happy with the status quo," and want to see new competition. He has "significant concerns" about China Unicom and Chinese Telecom being licensed to operate in the U.S., and favors an investigation of whether existing Communications Act Section 214 licenses should be pulled. He said there's unanimity among U.S. allies on the issue. Carr doesn’t think there's a need for a new agency like the FCC to regulate just edge providers; instead, antitrust authorities need to have "forward-looking vision" to see where the tech industry is going.
Satellite operators are pushing their plans for how an FCC C-band auction (see 1911220066) should work. Eutelsat CEO Rodolphe Belmer, in meetings with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks and an aide to Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, said it backed Pai's call for a C-band public auction, per a docket 18-122 posting Friday. Eutelsat said reallocation incentives "should be efficient, fair, transparent and competitively neutral" for C-band satellites authorized to provide services and their earth station customers. It said the agency should give primary responsibility to the C-band satellite operators to manage and complete the transition of their earth station customers' services, and they can best work with them to do that transition in a timely fashion using voluntary, market-based arrangements. It said a transition monitor could manage payments to satellite operators. The company said incentive payments to C-band satellite operators with capacity to serve the continental U.S. should include a fixed, upfront incentive payment to cover voluntarily relinquishing authorizations and undertaking obligations to manage the transition process while ensuring continuity of earth station customers. There should be reimbursement of actual and reasonable satellite operator costs in transitioning earth station customers to other bands or alternatives, and a final payment for achieving FCC-defined transition requirements, plus deductions or penalties for not meeting timelines. It's working on a refined proposal with a total incentive amount, to be paid from auction proceeds. ABS Global, Claro and Hispasat said Thursday the FCC could add a terrestrial use component to satellite authorizations but make clear those flexible use rights would have to collectively assigned by some deadline through auction. It could also require satellite operators to allow the FCC to do the auction on their behalf, avoiding the litigation risk that comes with letting a small group of satellite operators sell spectrum in a band where more hold similar rights. ABS and the others said earth station operators should get incentive payments so they can "invest in connectivity solutions that facilitate bridging the digital divide." ABS et al. proposed a satellite operator compensation formula that incudes computing each operator's share of the total amount of capital "impaired by a repurposing" and each operator's share of the total amount of spectrum use rights relinquished.