FCC Adjusting to Address Changing Spectrum Landscape, Genachowski Tells CTIA
NEW ORLEANS -- FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski went on the offensive Tuesday, explaining in a keynote speech at the CTIA national conference the efforts of the agency to get on top of what is expected to be a coming spectrum crunch. CTIA attendees say privately concerns about spectrum are only growing, especially given the problems the FCC has encountered getting any new spectrum online for commercial use in the near future. But, with the spectrum legislation that cleared Congress in February, carriers have the promise of the first major spectrum release since before Genachowski took over at the FCC with the pending incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum.
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"Of course it has become more difficult to find spectrum to auction, but, to borrow a phrase, reports of the spectrum auction’s demise have been greatly exaggerated,” Genachowski told a packed meeting hall. “The first thing I want to say about incentive auctions is, thank you. Thank you because ever since the FCC proposed this policy innovation in our National Broadband Plan, CTIA and its member companies have been among the most forceful advocates.”
Many questions remain about how well incentive auctions will work, Genachowski said. “How much spectrum the incentive auctions will ultimately free up will depend on rigorous and fact-based analysis of economics and engineering issues,” he said. “The engagement of the wireless industry will be critical.” Genachowski promised to release rulemaking notices on the auctions “by the fall of this year.” He also said he is asking the commission’s Technological Advisory Council to convene a forum on the future of bandplans. “I hope you'll lend your strongest engineers to this effort,” he said.
Spectrum sharing is another critical area of FCC focus, Genachowski said. “As NTIA has pointed out, spectrum sharing could provide a path to freeing up 95 MHz of spectrum for broadband in the 1.7 GHz band,” he said. “We know that it’s becoming increasingly hard to free up clear blocks of spectrum and reallocate them from government to commercial. … It would be counterproductive to limit ourselves to just two choices, complete reallocation or nothing.” Genachowski announced that the FCC will work with NTIA to test government/industry sharing in the 1755-1780 MHz LTE band. Doing so “could allow us to auction paired spectrum in the next three years.” He noted that last Friday, CTIA and T-Mobile filed an experimental application to test sharing.
Genachowski said the role of small-cell technologies will also be “a big deal,” going forward. “By increasing the density of network deployment several fold, small cells may be key to bridging the supply and demand gap in a sustainable way,” he said. The FCC sees 3.5 GHz spectrum as “ideally suited for small cells” and will launch a proceeding later this year on “enabling” small cells in the band.
The FCC is also focused on Wi-Fi, Genachowski said. “Our Wi-Fi networks themselves are facing congestion problems,” he said. “We recognize this growing problem and we're taking action. We're working with NTIA and industry to make an additional 120 MHz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band available for unlicensed use.” Receiver efficiency is also “an issue that’s time has come,” he said. “Our Technology Advisory Council has made it one of their top priorities, to find a constructive step forward on these issues that'll have to involve all key stakeholders including government spectrum users and device manufacturers."
Genachowski declined to take questions from the press as he quickly left the convention hall. CTIA President Steve Largent introduced Genachowski but did not ask any follow up questions. Genachowski attended a dinner with CTIA’s board Monday night.
Carriers continue to invest billions of dollars every year in their networks, Largent said. “But we also need the government to do its part,” he said. “We simply need more spectrum in the marketplace to meet broad consumer demand.” “Getting more spectrum” continues to be “the number one goal at CTIA,” he said.