Much attention during Tuesday's House Communications Subcommittee hearing on implementation of the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum statute focused on language to aid the broadcast incentive auction repacking process, as expected (see 1812070040). Industry witnesses praised the act and highlighted areas where additional Capitol Hill action may be needed to improve implementation, also as expected (see 1812100049). The FCC also got implementation comments (see 1812110025).
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.
Satellite interests with a plan to clear some 200 MHz in the C band opposed T-Mobile's plan (see 1811130055) and stumped for theirs, in early replies Friday to be posted in FCC docket 18-122. T-Mobile seeks a commission-run, "market-based auction mechanism to maximize the use of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band by terrestrial licensees, while permitting satellite operators to retain sufficient spectrum to continue to provide services" and share auction revenue. It wants at least 300 MHz in most areas available for terrestrial networks. Satellite companies, including those allied with the C-Band Alliance, have a different plan where carriers could buy rights to use frequencies in the secondary market. That's "favored by commenters spanning a diverse array of industries and interests, including the commercial aviation industry, C-band satellite operators," ISPs, broadcasters, content distributors, video programmers, carriers and others, said the alliance alliance of Eutelsat, Intelsat, SES and Telesat. T-Mobile's recommendation "would add years of delay to 5G deployment," the group said. "The Communications Act does not provide authority for the Commission to conduct the T-Mobile auction proposal because it would be neither voluntary nor among competing bidders." The company "assumes" the agency "would force or threaten to force the satellite operators to do more than they volunteered to do" on "how much of their shared, non-exclusive spectrum they are able to collectively repurpose within an 18-36 month timeline while maintaining high service quality," said Intel, Intelsat and SES Americom. T-Mobile declined to comment. Replies are due Tuesday, after the Wireless Bureau granted a request for more time by the American Cable Association, Competitive Carriers Association, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, Public Interest Spectrum Coalition and Wireless ISP Association. The groups didn't comment and the docket lacked their replies, which some noted they hadn't yet filed.
A Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing on implementation of the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum statute is expected to emphasize the law's language to aid the broadcast incentive auction repacking process. The hearing also will likely be an opportunity for House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., to showcase the act as the committee's top telecom policy achievement this Congress, before the end of the GOP majority in the chamber, lawmakers and communications lobbyists said. The act's language was included in the FY 2018 federal spending law (see 1803230038).
The House and Senate Commerce committees are likely to make the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act reauthorization debate and further work on spectrum and broadband-centric legislation some of their top 2019 priorities, said telecom aides during a Thursday Practising Law Institute event. Aides also cited interest in continuing to talk about net neutrality policy next Congress. Lawmakers and communications lobbyists we recently interviewed were skeptical of progress on a net neutrality compromise given the upcoming shift to split partisan control of Congress (see 1811290042). FCC Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel meanwhile told PLI the commission shouldn't be cautious in pursuing policies to keep the U.S. competitive (see 1812060056).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai hopes dig once to lay fiber conduits "becomes the law of the land," suggesting it's critical to increasing backhaul capacity to support 5G wireless. He said low-earth-orbit satellite constellations promise to expand rural broadband and lower latency. "Satellite innovation is really coming along well," he told a Geeks Without Frontiers conference Tuesday. The difficult broadband business case in high-cost areas is worsened by unnecessary rules, he said, vowing to continue deregulatory remedies: "We've made a lot of progress. There's still a ways to go." He said the Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction saved $3.5 billion, allocating $1.5 billion in broadband subsidies over 10 years for connecting over 700,000 locations estimated to need $5 billion. He plugged FCC "technological neutrality" letting wireless providers, electric utilities and Viasat be among new CAF recipients competing to serve rural customers. Pai highlighted other efforts to push broadband, including plans to auction 5 GHz of commercial spectrum over the next 18 months, and opening the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi use. The FCC is looking at unlicensed opportunities from low-band spectrum to the 95 GHz band, he said. Pai said there are "exciting times to come" in broadband-enabled "vertical" applications like teleheath, and IoT and artificial intelligence have potential upsides for healthcare.
Whether the 3.5 GHz band paradigm becomes the new norm or a specialty tool for particular occasions was debated by FCC Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel at a WiFiForward coalition event Thursday. "It's almost radical," eschewing the binary approach of licensed vs. unlicensed spectrum and going instead with the hierarchy of incumbents, secondary licenses and opportunistic use, Rosenworcel said. She hopes that approach will be used in other bands globally.
The FCC would give rural telcos monthly model-based USF support of $200 per location if they adopt new commitments to build out 25/3 Mbps broadband, under a draft order issued Wednesday. It would also seek to firm up support for rate-of-return (RoR) carriers still on legacy support in exchange for increased 25/3 Mbps deployment. The tentative agenda issued for the Dec. 12 commissioners' meeting also includes draft items on a new high-band 5G spectrum auction, a communications market report, a quadrennial review, media modernization, a robocall-related reassigned number database (here) and wireless messaging classification (here), as announced Tuesday by Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1811200048).
That the fight over license size in the 3.5 GHz band is over didn't stop a skirmish at an FCBA CLE that ran through Monday evening. Verizon Assistant Vice President-Federal Regulatory Patrick Welsh said it's disingenuous for General Electric and other massive companies to imply they lack resources to compete with national wireless carriers in a 3.5 GHz auction.
The FCC plans to launch a 2018 quadrennial review, classify wireless messaging as an information service, pave the way for a new high-band 5G auction, and provide rural telcos with new USF support in exchange for more deployment of 25/3 Mbps broadband, at the Dec. 12 commissioners' meeting. It's targeting votes on items to create a reassigned phone number database to help against unwanted robocalling, further "modernize" broadcast rules and issue a communications market report. The wireless messaging (including short message service or SMS) and auction items weren't among those previously expected (see 1811190047), with the first item now getting criticism.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai touted his "Fast Plan" to spur 5G. "We're aiming to free up more spectrum over the next 15 months than is currently held" by every mobile provider combined, he noted Friday in a Federalist Society speech largely tracking written remarks. He said low earth orbit satellite constellations, like those approved Thursday (see 1811150028), could be a "game changer" for broadband-hungry areas.