Legal Challenges Could Delay Deployment in C Band, AT&T Warns
AT&T warned of looming challenges to rules for the sale of the C band, in a meeting with FCC General Counsel Tom Johnson. “Some parties have asserted that the [C-Band Alliance’s] private sale of ‘clearing rights’ with winning bidders subsequently…
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applying for licenses would violate the requirement that new spectrum licenses be awarded through a system of competitive bidding,” AT&T said in docket 18-122, posted Monday. “AT&T is also concerned that, without notice and comment to adopt detailed Commission rules governing the auction and the transition, various stakeholders may bring notice or arbitrariness claims under the Administrative Procedure Act and otherwise reduce their support for, and participation in, the reallocation process,” the carrier said: Risk remains of “judicial appeals, and because of the nature of the objections, those appeals could leave the proposed auction in an extended legal limbo that could delay reallocation of this spectrum for years.” America’s Communications Association, meanwhile, filed a new report from Vantage Point Solutions in docket 18-122 on the amount of fiber required under its C-band plan. The report said connecting all MVPD earth stations with fiber through the purchase of indefeasible rights of use (IRUs) on 300,000 route miles of existing fiber and the construction of 120,000 additional route miles, “as proposed in the 5G Plus Plan, is achievable within the plan’s 18-36 month timeframe for urban and suburban markets and five-year timeframe for rural areas,” said the filing. IRUs for 300,000 route miles of fiber “are relatively easy to acquire in today’s market, and fiber IRU availability is nearly ubiquitous in urban and suburban areas,” ACA said: MVPDs are “capable of deploying hundreds of thousands of fiber route miles annually, far more than the plan requires.”