NAB to Restart Talks with Defense Department on Federal Sharing of BAS Spectrum
NAB views reply comments by CTIA on proposed rules for an auction of AWS-3 spectrum as all the assurance it needs CTIA is no longer pushing to reallocate 15 MHz of Broadcast Auxiliary Service spectrum for wireless broadband, Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan told us Tuesday. As a result, broadcaster discussions with the Department of Defense on possible sharing in the BAS band are back on, Kaplan said.
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"We've been assured by CTIA that they are no longer advocating to reallocate BAS spectrum and their filing basically reflects that assurance,” said Kaplan, former chief of the FCC Wireless Bureau. “We have also since been informed by commission staff that reallocation is off the table, so we are full steam ahead in our technical discussions with DOD to see if we can do our part to help free up 1755-1780 MHz for the wireless industry."
NAB and CTIA were at odds after the wireless association filed its initial comments (http://bit.ly/16j8iae), which argued that BAS spectrum at 2095-2110 MHz could be paired with 1695-1710 MHz spectrum for an auction (CD Oct 9 p1). CTIA’s reply comments were posted by the FCC Tuesday. NAB’s reply comments were sharply critical of CTIA’s earlier filing (CD Oct 29 p1).
"As CTIA stated in its initial comments, and as several parties also noted, the 2095-2110 MHz band has the appropriate characteristics for mobile broadband use and provides a logical extension of existing AWS bands if paired with 1695-1710 MHz,” CTIA said (http://bit.ly/1aEwmWD). “While opening comments highlight the strength of this pairing, CTIA notes that that Department of Defense is actively working with the FCC, broadcasters and other federal agencies to relocate Department of Defense services from the 1755-80 MHz band into a portion of the Broadcast Auxiliary Services at 2025-2110 MHz. CTIA supports efforts to clear the 1755-1780 MHz band as the FCC’s highest priority. Accordingly, the Commission should consider other options if it determines that the 1695-1710/2095-2110 approach is not feasible within the statutory time period.”
On another pairing, the 1755-1780 MHz band with the 2155-2180 MHz band, CTIA said there is broad industry support for offering those two bands as an extension to the current AWS-1 band. “Commenters in this proceeding not only support the adoption of this pairing, but they believe it should be a key policy priority for the Commission,” CTIA said. CTIA said much more work must be done on the 1755-1780 MHz band than was done to date by the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. The filing says a majority of CSMAC members signed a statement saying the analysis contained in reports on the band last summer were too “conservative and limited” (CD Aug 29 p1). “While the CSMAC process has been an important one, CTIA submits that more work must be done to examine the possibility of commercial mobile broadband in the 1755-1780 MHz band,” CTIA said.
"Many commenters in this proceeding, including Verizon Wireless, supported pairing this band with a portion of the Broadcast Auxiliary Service band at 2025-2110 MHz,” Verizon said in its reply comments (http://bit.ly/1acgkPp). “Given the potential challenges in making this spectrum available for commercial mobile use in time to meet the statutory deadline to auction the 1695-1710 MHz band, the FCC should explore whether the 1695-1710 MHz band could be paired with other bands."
AT&T said there’s consensus that 1695-1710 MHz should be set aside as uplink spectrum, but there’s less accord about which band to pair it with for auction. “There is general agreement that any failure to allocate 15 MHz of spectrum for the downlink pair here would effectively orphan this spectrum, largely destroying its value, both in terms of auction revenue and, more importantly, as a means of addressing the spectrum crunch,” AT&T said (http://bit.ly/1aECQF6).
If the government can release the 1755-1780 MHz band only on a shared basis, the rules of the road for what sharing means must be clear prior to any auction, AT&T said. “The CSMAC working groups have made substantial progress in this regard,” the carrier said. But “better modeling and testing is needed to more accurately represent the real-world interference environment that would exist between Federal and commercial users, including consideration of such effects as clutter, reasonable interference protection limits, and a truly representative LTE system model.”