ORLANDO -- High-band spectrum is the "wave" of the future, industry officials told the Competitive Carriers Association Tuesday. A 28 GHz auction starts Nov. 14 and a 24 GHz auction about one month after completion of the 28 GHz auction (see 1809180056). Verizon launched the first commercial 5G network Monday using millimeter-wave spectrum (see 1810010028).
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.
Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday the FCC will consider rules at the Oct. 23 commissioners' meeting allowing Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band and revising rules for the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Those were expected (see 1808310026). The FCC would post the draft items Tuesday, three weeks before the meeting. Also on tap is a draft order to update model-based support for rural telcos, media modernization on cable rate regulation and broadcast filing requirements and items on private land mobile radio (PLMR) services and enforcement.
Intelsat, SES, Eutelsat and Telesat formed the C-Band Alliance in a move aimed at accelerating access to midband spectrum for 5G. A July FCC NPRM sought comment on the band (see 1807120037). “The formation of the CBA is a significant achievement and demonstrates the industry alignment necessary to make this mid-band spectrum available quickly, thus supporting the U.S. objective of winning the race to introduce terrestrial 5G services,” the companies said. “The proposal establishes a commercial and technical framework that would enable terrestrial mobile operators to quickly access spectrum in a portion of the 3,700 to 4,200 MHz frequency band in the U.S., speeding the deployment of next-generation 5G services.” The coalition includes Head-Advocacy and Government Relations Preston Padden, a key player in the TV incentive auction, and CEO Bill Tolpegin, who was co-founder and CEO of OTA Broadcasting. The announcement “appears to be a great step to quickly and orderly reallocate the spectrum to commercial wireless use,” said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo (D) slammed the FCC’s 5G infrastructure order and said his office “will consider all of our legal and political options to ensure that the voices of local communities are heard, to achieve a more inclusive vision of our digital future.” Local governments expect to challenge the FCC order adopted Wednesday (see 1809260029). “The new FCC rules undermine the ability of local communities to negotiate fair, market-based broadband deployment agreements that benefit all of our residents,” he said Wednesday in a statement. Liccardo, who quit the FCC’s Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee in January (see 1801250049), is “not surprised by this result,” he said. “Rather than encouraging balanced, common-sense recommendations that advance equitable broadband infrastructure deployment, the FCC’s move will force taxpayers to subsidize industry access to publicly-owned infrastructure -- with no obligation to serve the 34 million Americans in low-income and rural communities who remain on the wrong side of the ‘digital divide.’ Thousands of students in cities like San Jose will continue to have to borrow their friends’ smartphones while huddling outside of a Starbucks in order to get access to a wi-fi network they need to do their homework, due to the unwillingness of the federal government and telecommunications industry to serve them.” Commissioner Brendan Carr's spokesman fired back: “There’s a reason why zero small cells were deployed in San Jose. It’s Mayor Liccardo. Under his leadership, as he puts it, San Joseans have been ‘huddling outside of a Starbucks in order to get access to a wi-fi network.’" Wednesday's vote "is a win for them and for Americans across the country who want better, faster, and cheaper broadband," he said. The FCC is doing its part to open a path for the U.S. to lead the world on 5G, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a Washington Post opinion piece. “The FCC has been aggressively making more radio waves available for Americans to use,” Pai said. “Last year, we concluded the world’s first incentive auction, in which spectrum once used by TV broadcasters was sold to wireless companies to expand bandwidth and coverage for consumers. We’ve scheduled the United States’ first two high-band 5G spectrum auctions, which will begin later this year, and we are on track to auction off three more bands next year.” Infrastructure is also critical, Pai said. “To deploy the hundreds of thousands of small cells and miles of fiber needed for 5G, we need to streamline regulations,” he said. “We will never realize the 5G future if we impose federal, state, local and tribal regulatory burdens designed for large towers on every single small cell.”
The FCC approved a declaratory ruling and order designed to speed the deployment of small cells and 5G across the U.S. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, whose vote had been in doubt (see 1809200007), partially dissented and partially concurred Wednesday.
Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said many interests are using 5G as an excuse to get things they want, in a Brookings Institution blog post. T-Mobile and Sprint use the race for 5G as evidence their deal should be approved, Wheeler said. The FCC “has used the race to justify extending Washington’s regulatory reach down to telling local governments how to do zoning for antenna siting,” he said. Satellite companies want to recast their licenses for 5G spectrum and seek a “potential monetary windfall” from a private auction, he said. It's time for cooler heads to prevail, said Wheeler, a Brookings visiting fellow. “5G is an important step forward for wireless technology that will benefit consumers and drive economic growth,” he said. “However, it is time to take a deep breath and let logic temper emotional battle cries and political gamesmanship. We need to spend less time worrying about China and more time asking how we can we race to make 5G work for all Americans.”
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel declined to say Thursday whether she will vote for the pending 5G wireless infrastructure order and declaratory ruling at the Wednesday commissioners' meeting, and she expressed strong reservations. Rosenworcel also said at a Politico 5G discussion that U.S. tariffs against China are going be harmful to 5G. Commissioner Brendan Carr, the architect of the 5G order, defended the action the FCC is poised to take next week.
Initial applications to bid in the FCC’s first high-band spectrum auctions were due 6 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The agency eventually will publish a list of short-form applications, both those deemed complete and incomplete. The 28 GHz auction starts Nov. 14 and 24 GHz auction about one month after completion of the 28 GHz auction. Cowen’s Paul Gallant wrote investors earlier Tuesday that one big question is whether Dish Network will jump in. “If Dish submits an application, it could complicate any merger or spectrum sale discussions with wireless carriers” because of anti-collusion rules, he noted: But talks are still possible as long as a company “cordons off its bidding team from its deal team.” Gallant is also watching other non-carriers that file applications. “No pre-auction analysis would be complete without noting the distant possibility of Amazon, Google or some other deep-pocketed, non-traditional bidder jumping in,” he said. Dish has gone big in other auctions, especially the AWS-3 and TV incentive auctions.
With less than two weeks to a vote on a draft declaratory ruling and order designed to speed up infrastructure siting (see 1809050029), cities are mounting a campaign to get the FCC to rethink the order. Commissioner Brendan Carr, who crafted it, said in a speech to the Mobile World Congress Americas that the FCC needs to act to lead on 5G. Others at the Los Angeles Thursday conference also stressed the importance of making small cells easier to site (see 1809130043 and 1809120031). Elsewhere, Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) supported reducing small-cells application fees beyond what's required by this year’s Illinois law.
Keynote speakers at day two of the Mobile World Congress Americas conference in Los Angeles agreed 5G will be transformative, for the wireless industry and beyond. “We need faster, we need reliable, we need responsive,” said Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri. “We need 5G, which is good because it’s here. We were not always sure that it would arrive so fast.” All four national wireless carriers deserve credit, Suri said. “These folks are moving fast and they’re moving first,” he said. “They want to get started to grab the moment. They’re right.”