The FCC is considering a revised position offered by NTIA on future use of the 37 GHz band. NTIA offered new language after carriers complained that under the proposed rules, coordination zones with the department change even after the band is auctioned, industry and government officials said this week.
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.
Some wireless industry officials came away disappointed from CTIA’s 5G Summit Thursday (see 1904040048) that FCC Chairman Ajit Pai didn’t offer new details or make a more explicit commitment on the C band. CTIA President Meredith Baker said at the event the band offers the best opportunity for making more mid-band spectrum available quickly. Pai, who spoke at the end, said the FCC is looking closely at the band and repeated earlier comments that it’s unusually complicated. Pai said he was still “sitting down with engineers, economists and lawyers” working through the future of the band.
Verizon and AT&T raised concerns about the coordination process with DOD outlined in a draft order on the 37 GHz band, set for an FCC commissioner vote Friday. Verizon met with aides to all five commissioners, Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale and other staff, said a filing posted Friday in docket 14-177. The process outlined “lacks the much-needed clarity” to promote investment, Verizon said: “We urged the Commission to make clear that licensees are under no obligation to agree to a federal entity’s request for spectrum access and -- when a licensee grants access -- that the federal entity must operate on a non-interference basis to existing and future commercial deployment within the licensed area.” AT&T cited similar concerns in a filing. The “unknown potential for new, post-auction preclusion zones could create harmful pre-auction uncertainty, the bane of maximizing the possibility of auction success and value,” AT&T said.
That the US is losing on 5G “just is not true,” said Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, at a CTIA 5G summit Thursday. “Basically, we’re winning." Kudlow said he met with President Donald Trump about 5G Wednesday. CTIA President Meredith Baker said the C band (see 1904040076) offers the best opportunity for making more mid-band spectrum available.
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee apparently disappeared after 14 years, said to be caught up in administration politics. Former members and government officials said NTIA Administrator David Redl isn’t to blame. Redl had written a list of questions for a new CSMAC and sent names to the Commerce Department months ago, where the list ran into broader political concerns, the officials said. Redl declined to comment. Meanwhile, the administration is working on a comprehensive, long-term national spectrum strategy (see 1810250018).
Though it's not clear how much midband spectrum 5G will require, the U.S. is clearly lagging compared with midband availability in other nations, said CTIA President Meredith Baker at a Media Institute event Wednesday. When we asked her what's needed at minimum, she said the possibility of 180 MHz from the C band, as proposed by the C-Band Alliance (CBA), and 70 MHz from the 3.5 GHz band would still leave the U.S. 50 MHz shy of the global average of what other nations have dedicated to 5G.
An incentive auction in the 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band would maximize the educational value of the spectrum “by converting the leasing scheme’s implicit and inefficient subsidy into an explicit needs-based subsidy for educational broadband,” Tech Knowledge said Wednesday. EBS licensees have less experience managing spectrum than wireless providers, the group said. Providing direct subsidies makes more sense than the current regime, Tech Knowledge said. “In exchange for commercial use of its spectrum, a school board whose FCC license would be worth up to $157 million at auction is currently receiving an educational use benefit that amounts to $0.02 per K-12 student per month that can only be used to buy retail wireless broadband services from Sprint."
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., separately insisted they're actively pursuing their Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (Airwaves) Act. Filed last Congress, it aims to identify spectrum for unlicensed use and free up mid-band spectrum for wireless industry purchase via an FCC auction (see 1802070054). Some expected refiling this month, but New Street Research contends reintroduction now appears indefinitely delayed (see 1903120083). “We're just trying to get [the Airwaves Act] perfected,” Gardner told us. “We've got some final negotiations to go through before we get it introduced,” but “we're making good progress.” Reintroduction of the Airwaves Act remains a priority, but the push for House passage of the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) took precedence recently, Doyle told reporters. The 35-day partial government shutdown that ended in January also delayed some telecom policy priorities, including FCC oversight plans (see 1903270045), Doyle said. “We're playing catch-up,” but “we're talking.”
Intel representatives told the FCC a market-based approach for the C-band is the best course and would get mid-band spectrum in play more quickly for 5G. “Because it is voluntary, it solves the holdout problem, avoids contentious disputes with the incumbents and harnesses competitive market forces to make the many difficult technical and business tradeoffs that must be addressed in this proceeding,” Intel said. “Compared to the alternatives, it will repurpose and assign this spectrum more efficiently and, most importantly, far more quickly.” Intel met Chief Don Stockdale and officials from his Wireless Bureau, the International Bureau and the Office of Economic Analysis, said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-183. Giving up FCC authorizations and moving to a compressed band "will be painful for all involved," which is the FCC should opt for a distribution and scoring model for however the sale is conducted, said small-satellite operators ABS Global, Hispasat and Embratel Star One, in a posting Monday renewing a push for their distribution model (see 1903110059). That would divvy up some of the proceeds among all satellite operators authorized to transmit in the U.S. C band, not just C-Band Alliance members, they said. They said T-Mobile's band-clearing plan runs afoul of the Communications Act with a reverse auction phase of earth station owners bidding against satellite operators when those parties aren't competing licensees. T-Mobile didn't comment. America's Communications Association said the FCC should determine to what extent the C-band can be refarmed before acting. T-Mobile claims 200 MHz is “insufficient to meet the needs of 5G service providers” and “CTIA has intimated that at least 300 MHz is needed for the U.S. to maintain its global leadership,” ACA said. “Without this information, the figures that are being floated in this proceeding, and that are gradually increasing, are shots in the dark, and any decision as to how much spectrum should, or can, be refarmed would lack foundation,” ACA said. The group said the FCC should also look at the effect in rural markets.
An FCC order on the upper 37 GHz band, teed up for the April 12 commissioners' meeting, shows the length the agency will go to clear spectrum for 5G, as an ongoing auction tops $1 billion. The FCC proposes rules for coordinating with DOD on future use of the upper 37 GHz band beyond current DOD sites located there. The plan “strikes a reasonable balance,” said the draft order posted Friday. Chairman Ajit Pai unveiled the agenda Thursday (see 1903210062).