Action on 2.5 GHz Band Seen Possible at June 6 FCC Meeting
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is considering an item addressing the 2.5 GHz band for the June 6 commissioners’ meeting, industry officials said Monday. The agency should hold off further action on the band until a full record is established on the educational broadband service (EBS), the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition and others said Monday in a letter to the commission.
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A year ago, commissioners approved 4-0 an NPRM seeking proposals for changes to the band, including an incentive auction like the one for TV broadcast spectrum (see 1805100053). Pai is scheduled to circulate items for the June meeting Thursday, under past precedent. Wednesday, he's expected to post a blog discussing what he will circulate.
“We have heard that the FCC may schedule a vote on this proceeding … that would radically change the direction proposed in the NPRM, eliminate the educational nature of this band, foreclose opportunities for new educational entities to finally get access to spectrum for which they have been waiting over two decades,” the letter said. Those steps would “overturn the long-standing educational mission and public interest benefits for this spectrum that was established over 50 years ago,” it said. The North American Catholic Educational Programing Foundation, Mobile Beacon, Voqal, National Digital Inclusion Alliance and Public Knowledge also signed the letter, filed in docket 18-120.
The band is among those the FCC is examining for 5G. When the agency took comment last year, it found little consensus (see 1809100045). Sprint, long the dominant holder of 2.5 GHz licenses among U.S. carriers, says current rules are mostly working.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see this move forward,” but “there would be a lot of pushback,” predicted a lawyer with carrier clients. The lawyer said it remains unclear whether providers other than Sprint are interested in the band. FCC officials said they are hearing rumors but nothing definitive. One industry official said the new rules would likely include an incentive auction and only allow for the expansion of EBS in tribal areas.
“EBS technology has developed over the last few years and can now empower schools and tribal nations to take closing the digital divide and the homework gap into their own hands,” SHLB Executive Director John Windhausen told us. “We worry that the FCC might squander this opportunity by allowing these licenses to be sold off to the highest bidder. The EBS spectrum is the only band that is dedicated to the public interest, and could serve as a perfect complement to the auctions of other commercial bands. Hundreds of thousands of children across the country stand to benefit if these EBS licenses are awarded to schools and tribal nations for educational purposes."
“The record overwhelmingly validates these advantages of rationalization relative to other proposals,” Voqal said in a recent filing in docket 18-120: “Numerous EBS licensees have described their plans to deploy within weeks of a Commission decision that would allow them to expand their service in underserved rural areas.”