FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel warned the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday the U.S. isn’t leading the world on 5G and can’t without more mid-band spectrum. Rosenworcel asked the committee to develop C-band legislation. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said the FCC isn’t necessarily behind, though a winner won’t be known for some time.
Wireless Spectrum Auctions
The FCC manages and licenses the electromagnetic spectrum used by wireless, broadcast, satellite and other telecommunications services for government and commercial users. This activity includes organizing specific telecommunications modes to only use specific frequencies and maintaining the licensing systems for each frequency such that communications services and devices using different bands receive as little interference as possible.
What are spectrum auctions?
The FCC will periodically hold auctions of unused or newly available spectrum frequencies, in which potential licensees can bid to acquire the rights to use a specific frequency for a specific purpose. As an example, over the last few years the U.S. government has conducted periodic auctions of different GHz bands to support the growth of 5G services.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai urged tribes to pursue 2.5 GHz licenses when a six-month tribal opportunity opens Feb. 3. Tribal officials told us the level of attendance at the Tuesday workshop where Pai spoke shows they're interested. In July, the agency revised rules over partial dissents of Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks. The FCC gave only the tribes a shot at seeking licenses before auction.
Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., led filing Tuesday of the Utilizing Strategic Allied Telecommunications Act. They want to encourage investment in U.S. 5G developments and incentivize alternatives to telecom equipment manufactured by Huawei and ZTE. The bill would require the FCC direct at least $750 million, or up to 5 percent in annual spectrum auction proceeds, to create an NTIA-managed open radio access network R&D fund to spur movement to open-architecture, software-based wireless technologies. The measure would also create a $500 million multilateral telecommunications security fund to accelerate global adoption of trusted and secure telecom equipment. It would aim to increase U.S. participation in international standards-setting bodies and require the FCC report to Congress on recommendations. “Every month that the U.S. does nothing, Huawei stands poised to become the cheapest, fastest, most ubiquitous global provider of 5G, while U.S. and Western companies and workers lose out on market share and jobs,” Warner said in a statement. Four senators signed as original co-sponsors: Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Lawmakers are again talking about advancing legislation to help fund U.S. communications providers removing Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security (see 2001080002).
The FCC plans to prioritize bids for high-speed, low-latency broadband networks in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, said a draft rulemaking for docket 19-126 released Thursday. RDOF is one of several items that circulated from Chairman Ajit Pai. So far, it's shaping up to be the most watched item, and legislators expressed some related concerns.
LAS VEGAS -- This year will be one of “execution” on making more spectrum available for 5G and Wi-Fi, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in an interview at CES. O’Rielly and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr spoke on a panel, after remarks by Chairman Ajit Pai. Pai wasn’t asked about and didn’t provide any additional details on the 6 GHz band or C band (see 2001070054).
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and other lawmakers are restarting talks to advance legislation to provide funding to help U.S. communications providers remove from their networks Chinese equipment determined to threaten national security. December's bid to advance it quickly in the Senate had failed (see 1912190068). The House voted Wednesday to pass the Secure 5G and Beyond Act (HR-2881) and three other 5G-centric bills, as expected (see 2001030049).
The FCC is moving forward to clear spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band for 5G and to take other actions to speed deployment, as leadership changes at other agencies raise questions about whether spectrum policy disarray continues elsewhere in President Donald Trump's administration. Trump recently moved Robert Blair from the State Department to oversee the administration’s 5G push under National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow (see 1912240015). Blair is the latest in a line of advisers to fill that role.
It's difficult to gauge how the citizens broadband radio service launch has gone so far. In September, the FCC, in docket 15-319 cleared Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google and Sony to start initial commercial deployment (ICD) in the 3.5 GHz band, but the companies aren’t required to publicly report numbers. CBRS Alliance President Dave Wright of CommScope told us initial numbers are proprietary, but CBRS is moving forward as expected with full-scale launch imminent. “I continue to be extremely excited,” Wright said.
CTIA and carriers are pushing the FCC to move some 6 GHz incumbents to spectrum above 7.125 GHz, but it’s unclear that approach will work. NTIA has been scoping the 7125-8400 MHz band since the summer (see 1908010065). NTIA officials now say they think federal agencies, particularly DOD, are active in the band and their systems would be difficult to relocate, said industry officials active in the proceeding. Some uses of the band are classified.
The FCC is fishing for ideas to incentivize C-band satellite operators beyond costs of moving customers to just the upper portion. That's more complicated since all operators have equal access to the full band, we were told. Momentum is behind the idea of incentivizing incumbents, partly to try to avoid what otherwise is seen as a likely legal challenge to a government move to take back satellite spectrum authorizations.