FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the April 12 commissioners’ meeting will focus on 5G for a second straight month. It includes the public notice for the auction of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands and a plan for sharing the 37 GHz band between industry and DOD. 5G is “the next big thing in wireless,” Pai blogged. He plans votes on nixing a rural telco USF rate floor and granting part of a USTelecom forbearance petition seeking ILEC relief from certain structural-separation and reporting duties. And there's a media modernization item, among others in the pipeline (see 1903210072).
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.
AT&T representatives urged an incentive auction for the 2.5 GHz band, in meeting FCC Wireless Bureau staff. ”AT&T recognizes the complexity of the band but believes the best way to resolve the challenges is to hold both an incentive auction for existing licensees and a traditional auction for the whitespaces making this spectrum available for rapid 5G deployments,” AT&T said Monday in docket 18-120. The FCC sought comment last year on possible changes to rules for the band but found little consensus. The carrier said then an auction appeared inevitable (see 1809100045).
The Enterprise Wireless Alliance sent members and customers a fact sheet Monday trying to set the record straight on the future of the 700 MHz T band. It was repurposed for commercial use by the 2012 law that created FirstNet, EWA noted. “It is debatable that the Congressional decision to take this heavily used band away from public safety (and collaterally from business entities) in exchange for 700 MHz spectrum for deployment of a national public safety broadband network was prudent policy, but the private land mobile industry is now stuck with the impending consequences,” EWA said: Some "attempt to capitalize on FCC inaction and licensees’ lack of understanding of spectrum policy processes to promote premature system migrations.” Congress requires only that the FCC start an auction of the band by 2021, not clear it of incumbents, the group reminded. EWA said any licensee that leaves the band now won't receive grant money from NTIA to cover its relocation costs. Proponents of rewriting the act face a tough road in Congress, the alliance said.
President Donald Trump’s administration again proposes to cut funding to CPB in its FY 2020 budget proposal as part of its “plan to move the Nation towards fiscal responsibility and to redefine the proper role of the Federal Government.” Trump signed off in October on a FY 2019 federal spending law that maintained CPB’s annual funding at $445 million through FY 2021, despite having proposed in that year’s budget request to draw down the program’s funding (see 1809280043). The budget increased proposed money for the FCC and NTIA from what the administration proposed in its FY 2019 request. The FCC’s figure is down from its funding level under the spending bill passed in February (see 1902150055).
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissented on a Further NPRM proposing vertical accuracy standards for wireless calls indoors to 911. Commissioner Geoffrey Starks voted yes in part and concurred in part. The questions were expected (see 1903140043). The FNPRM proposes a vertical location accuracy metric, or z-axis, of plus or minus 3 meters for 80 percent of indoor wireless calls to 911.
The FCC terminated "dormant" proceedings, such as AT&T's failed buy of T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom, the Sirius/XM satellite radio combination and a few begun under bureaus that no longer exist in name after restructuring. "We received no responsive comments" to a seventh dormant proceedings termination public notice Sept. 12, said a Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau order in Thursday's Daily Digest and docket 18-272 (there were two short "express" comments). "CGB finds no justification for keeping open any of the dockets" listed in an attachment, totaling over 380, by our count. Several Common Carrier Bureau (now the Wireline Bureau) proceedings date to 1991 and 1992, including on competitive service and facility rates under a "3rd Computer Inquiry," local multipoint distribution service rules at 27.5-29.5 GHz, and applying open network architecture and nondiscrimination safeguards to GTE companies. A Cable Bureau (now part of the Media Bureau) proceeding on carriage of broadcast DTV signals began in 1998. A proceeding on changes to Comsat's corporate structure and operations hadn't had a "standard filing" since Nov. 28, 2000, the longest-dormant one. The proceedings with the most standard filings were AT&T/T-Mobile with 4,557; Sirius/XM, 3,147; DTV carriage,1,989; and the Broadband Data Improvement Act's international comparison and consumer survey requirements,1,919. The order terminates an Office of Engineering and Technology probe from 2010 of the 1675-1710 MHz band (see 1006070094) and a request for plans to create a spectrum test city launched in 2014 (see 1407140052). The FCC ultimately sold off unpaired 1695-1710 MHZ spectrum in the AWS-3 auction. Also terminated is the Wireless Bureau’s docket on a 2005 petition for declaratory ruling filed by CTIA on whether early termination fees are rates charged for commercial mobile services under the Communications Act and FCC precedent (see 0503240118). Dead proceedings included numerous applications for transfers of control, other licensing matters and telecom service discontinuances; notifications of telecom network changes; and petitions of all sorts, including for waivers.
The draft report and order opening spectrum above 95 GHzfor new commercial technologies is expected to be approved 5-0 by commissioners Friday, with few if any tweaks, FCC and industry officials said. Many questions remain about the treatment of passive bands in the “spectrum horizons” order, and those concerns are likely to surface during the discussion Friday, the officials said. Other questions could be on spectrum policy and spectrum enforcement. House Science Committee leaders raised similar concerns about the 24 GHz auction that starts Thursday.
Reintroduction of the Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (Airwaves) Act “appears to be delayed,” possibly “indefinitely,” New Street Research's Vivek Stalam emailed investors Tuesday. The bill, previously filed during the last Congress, aims to identify spectrum for unlicensed use and free up mid-band spectrum for wireless industry purchase via an FCC auction (see 1802070054). Some lobbyists had pegged a possible reintroduction of the measure this week. House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., said earlier this year they were interested in refiling the legislation (see 1902120057). A delay in reintroduction would be a “mild positive” for the C-Band Alliance and member companies Intelsat and SES, Stalam said. One of the bill's “key provisions would reportedly call for an FCC auction, not a CBA-run auction or sale” of C-band spectrum. The act was likely to face difficult prospects for “passage, but whether it passed or not would provide a signal of Congress’s preference to the FCC,” Stalam said. “Absent a signal from Congress to the contrary, it is easier for the FCC to justify a CBA-run process. We will be on the lookout for any signs that Congress will be seeking to influence the FCC C-Band process via other means (like via a letter or hearing on the matter).” Spokespersons for Doyle and Gardner didn't comment.
A growing number of cable operators are lined up against the C-Band Alliance 3.7-4.2 GHz band clearing plan, but opinions differ on whether the opposition is hurting CBA. With CBA seen having Verizon support (see here) and potentially close to also getting AT&T backing, "that's usually been quite convincing to the FCC to move forward," said telecom and satellite consultant Tim Farrar. AT&T said it continues to support the idea of CBA crafting and running an FCC-approved auction (see 1812120010).
A C-Band Alliance proposal for how CBA would protect earth stations in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band from interference from flexible use operations in the lower part of the band isn't winning over all critics. American Cable Association Senior Vice President-Government Affairs Ross Lieberman emailed that CBA's docket 18-122 posting Tuesday "fails to address the most pressing concerns ... like higher prices, lost programming, and foregone investments. CBA’s failure to acknowledge and offer solutions to these problems highlights why they are not suited -- whereas the FCC is -- to manage any reimbursement program for C-band users.”