Capitol Hill's expected Monday night release of the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill looked more uncertain at our deadline, but several lawmakers and aides said they believe the legislation will include the text of the House-passed Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986). The leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees have been eyeing the omnibus as a vehicle for enacting HR-4986 since last month, before the House passed the legislation (see 1802270055, 1803010056 and 1803060046). The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (HR-4943/S-2383) could also be included in the omnibus (see 1803150059). The current continuing resolution to fund the government expires Friday. Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and other lawmakers separately told reporters they were hopeful but not certain the omnibus text would be finalized Monday night amid disagreements on several issues. Thune told reporters he is confident HR-4986 would be in the omnibus but "nobody knows until you see it." There was still "a whole bunch of stuff" under negotiation at our deadline, Thune said. Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., whose subcommittee has jurisdiction over the FCC budget, told reporters she is "very confident" that spectrum provisions included in HR-4986 are in the omnibus but "in terms of FCC reauthorization, I don't have a definite answer on that." HR-4986 includes language from the Viewer Protection Act (HR-3347) to authorize additional repack funding (see 1803080049) and from the Spectrum Auction Deposits Act (HR-4109) that would let the FCC place bidders' deposits for future spectrum auctions in a Treasury Department fund. It also includes a revised version of language from the Senate-passed Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless (Mobile Now) Act (S-19) spectrum bill (see 1803020027 and 1803060046). "We're still optimistic” that HR-4986 will be included in the omnibus, but “anything can happen” since negotiations were continuing Monday on several items in the larger spending package, one aide told us. It’s unlikely that last-minute misgivings voiced by Public Knowledge and others (see 1803160059) about language drawn from the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (HR-599/S-174) would endanger HR-4986’s prospects of being included in the spending bill, another aide said. The House passed HR-599 in early 2017. The Senate approved S-174 and other telecom-related bills in August as part of a deal to confirm Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1708030060). The legislative language from S-174 would consolidate several FCC reports into a single biennial “Communications Marketplace Report.” Congressional Democratic leaders have backed consolidated reporting, with previous versions of HR-599/S-174 passing “unanimously” out of the House and Senate several times, so “it’s a little late in the game” for PK and others to object to the provisions now, an aide said.
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.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., urged the FCC Wednesday to reconsider approval earlier this year of the transfer of 39 GHz licenses from FiberTower to AT&T and high-frequency spectrum licenses from Straight Path to Verizon (see 1801180046 and 1802080055). Wireless Bureau decisions approving the deals “awarded investors in Straight Path and FiberTower multi-billion dollar windfalls at the expense of taxpayers,” Eshoo said in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. She questioned the deals' timing and is concerned they could distort a planned November auction of 28 GHz band spectrum since the Straight Path deal would mean Verizon would already have a major presence on the band. The FCC should rescind the bureau-level decisions, reclaim the previously-canceled Straight Path and FiberTower licenses “as the FCC's rules require, and conduct a timely assignment of this spectrum and the other available millimeter bands,” Eshoo said. “Spectrum assignments should be neutral, transparent and efficient, and the current Bureau-level decisions are none of these things." Straight Path and Verizon paid a $600 million civil penalty in February in connection with a 2017 settlement to end an Enforcement Bureau investigation into Straight Path's failure to use its spectrum in violation of buildout and discontinuance rules (see 1701120046 and 1802280039). Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry said it's an “understatement” to say the bureau's “decisions are not in the public interest” since they “reward Straight Path and FiberTower with multi-billion-dollar windfalls for not building out spectrum and provide Verizon and AT&T a first-mover advantage in coveted 5G spectrum at the expense of American taxpayers.” CCA petitioned for an FCC review and stay of its AT&T/FiberTower decision. All stakeholders would “benefit from an auction of the valuable high-band spectrum, as opposed to going down the path of further spectrum consolidation by already dominant wireless incumbents,” Berry said in a statement. The spectrum deals "will allow high-band spectrum licenses to be put to productive use, facilitate the prompt deployment of next-generation wireless services and thus help [the U.S.] lead the world in 5G," emailed an FCC spokeswoman. "Moreover, the consent decree that allowed Straight Path to sell its licenses rather than return them to the Commission was signed" during former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's administration "and no Commissioner objected to it. So any attempt to turn this into a partisan issue is utterly baseless."
T-Mobile agreed to help accelerate the repacking of KXAS-TV (NBC) Fort Worth to more quickly have access to 600 MHz spectrum bought in the incentive auction, the carrier said Wednesday. KXAS will move to its new frequency in late May, more than a year earlier than its FCC repacking deadline of June 21, 2019, it said. “This agreement also enables T-Mobile to enhance LTE coverage and capacity in the area more quickly.” The deal will let T-Mobile accelerate improved wireless service to the Texas cities of Paris, Sulphur Springs, Tyler, Waco and Wichita Falls, plus Durant, Oklahoma, the company said.
A Tuesday Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on broadband provisions in President Donald Trump's infrastructure legislative proposal discussed how the plan would deal with streamlining broadband-related regulations and funding to encourage deployments. Senators reserved their strongest criticisms for the state of connectivity data collection and mapping. All three issues were among those expected to be covered (see 1803120054). Secretaries of Transportation Elaine Chao, Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Commerce Wilbur Ross are among those expected to testify at a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing that also could involve broadband provisions in Trump's plan.
Before C-band is opened for terrestrial use, other satellite operators currently not using the spectrum should have an opportunity to stake a claim for use for their own services, since it's allocated for satellite, ViaSat CEO Mark Dankberg said in an interview Tuesday at Satellite 2018. He said ViaSat and other satellite operators will make that case to the FCC. Intelsat and SES -- the major satcom users of C-band -- are pushing a plan for clearing and sharing parts of the band (see 1802090016).
T-Mobile is pleased the FCC is allowing the early repacking of some Puerto Rican broadcasters, T-Mobile executives said in a meeting in San Juan last week with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was on a trip there and to the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 1803120056). The early transition of the TV stations there “serves the dual policy objectives of repurposing spectrum for wireless broadband use while ensuring continued vitality of the television broadcast industry,” the carrier filed in docket 17-344. T-Mobile has 50 MHz of 600 MHz spectrum in Puerto Rico “and the early repack of broadcasters there allows us to deploy this spectrum far sooner than would otherwise be possible, including for 5G service, as equipment is available.” The executives backed a more aggressive timetable for selling high-frequency licenses. “The public interest can be even better served by the Commission moving quickly to auction all of the millimeter wave bands allocated for terrestrial mobile use in the Spectrum Frontiers proceeding, including multiple (if not all) of those bands together in the initial millimeter wave auction. These include the 24 GHz, 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz bands.”
The Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986) “will go through the Senate” one way or another, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on an appearance on C-SPAN’s The Communicators, set to be telecast Saturday. The House passed HR-4986 earlier this week (see 1803060046), but it remains unclear whether the measure will make it onto the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill.
The House passed the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986) on a voice vote Tuesday, as expected (see 1803010056 and 1803050043). The bill includes a revised version of language from the Senate-passed Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless (Mobile Now) Act (S-19) spectrum bill, as part of an agreement announced Friday between the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees (see 1708030060). HR-4986's path to enactment remained unclear. Backers on Capitol Hill told us they were working with members of the House and Senate Appropriations committees to attach the bill to the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill.
David Redl is likely to face a wide range of questions from House Communications Subcommittee members Tuesday about his vision for NTIA, as he makes his Capitol Hill hearing debut as administrator. Likely topics include plans to study the 3450-3550 MHz band for wireless broadband and his views on the 2016 Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition, Hill aides and industry lobbyists said in interviews. The panel intended the hearing to focus on oversight of NTIA and to discuss the agency’s $33.6 million FY 2019 budget proposal, down from the $36 million requested in FY 2018 but largely on par with funding for the year under continuing appropriations (see 1802120037 and 1802050025).
House leaders formally set a Tuesday floor vote on a compromise version of the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization bill (HR-4986) under suspension of the rules, as expected (see 1803010056). Leaders didn’t yet estimate what time the vote would occur. The amended bill now contains a revised version of language from the Senate-passed Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless (Mobile Now) Act (S-19) spectrum bill, as part of an agreement announced Friday between the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees (see 1708030060 and 1803010056). The lawmakers and their staffs agreed to assuage concerns from DOD and other federal agencies about S-19’s previous language by nearly halving -- to 255 MHz -- the amount of spectrum they would be required to identify for broadband use by 2022. The 500 MHz figure previously delineated in S-19 was somewhat "already dated,” a House aide said: “It was a concession to DOD but in some ways it was a matter of updating the spectrum provisions” to reflect reallocation progress by federal agencies. HR-4986 includes language to authorize additional TV incentive auction repack funding (see 1802140064) and from the Spectrum Auction Deposits Act (HR-4109) that would let the FCC place bidders' deposits in future spectrum auctions in a Treasury Department fund (see 1710250026). HR-4986 already also reflected a raft of other Senate bills, including the Rural Wireless Access Act (S-1621), which the Senate passed last week under unanimous consent (see 1710100066 and 1803020026). The revised bill also eliminates all but one provision from the FCC Process Reform Act (HR-290) that had been included in earlier House Commerce-cleared versions of the bill at the behest of Senate Commerce ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla. The remaining HR-290 language extends an existing exemption of FCC USF expenditures from Anti-Deficiency Act requirements.