Cherokee Nation, Others Say FCC's 2.5 GHz License Inventory Remains Flawed
The Cherokee Nation urged the FCC not to sell any licenses covering its tribal lands, as the FCC took comment on whether to adjust rules for a 2.5 GHz auction “in light of additions to the initial license inventory.” The FCC sought comment last month and isn’t allowing reply comments (see 2202220042). Comments were posted Monday in docket 20-429.
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The Cherokee Nation noted it has a pending application to use the band for broadband, filed under the 2020 tribal window, which provided pre-auction access to the band. The Cherokee Nation “requests government-to-government consultation with the FCC before it finalizes the existing inventory list,” it said: “Cherokee Nation should take precedent to ensure this available resource is best put to use for our citizens.”
The Catholic Technology Network and National Educational Broadband Service Association, which represent EBS licensees, said the list isn’t accurate. “The Revised Inventory incorrectly includes channels and counties that are already licensed to existing EBS licensees,” the groups said: “This is a serious error, which must be corrected before the Commission proceeds” with an auction. The error “appears to have occurred as a result of a flawed analysis of how canceled, terminated, or expired EBS licenses affect the geographic service areas of active EBS licenses,” the groups said.
The Instructional Telecommunications Foundation disputed whether licenses in Boone, Hendricks, and Morgan counties in Indiana should be included in the inventory. The group cited a long-standing dispute about the status of a University of Indiana license, which the FCC maintains was canceled in 2007.
The FCC is getting set for an auction, now expected to start in July (see 2203010070). Several commenters said the most important concern is an accurate inventory.
The final inventory must “accurately reflect, prior to the short-form application deadline, only auction products with available white space in each country,” said T-Mobile, which is widely expected to add to extensive 2.5 GHz holdings in the sale. T-Mobile urged publication of an auction timeline. Changes to the inventory of licenses “need not slow the adoption of the auction procedures, as revisions to auction inventory are ordinary and expected prior to the short-form application deadline,” the company said.
The agency should “fully” address questions raised in connection with the inventory list and launch an accurate mapping tool before the deadline for short-form applications, Verizon said: “Although bidders are responsible for conducting due diligence in any auction, lingering inaccuracies in the license inventory will reduce bidders’ confidence in the auction, deterring participation and driving down proceeds.”
Auction procedures don’t need to be adjusted, “they just need to be implemented through a single-round auction that does not foreclose meaningful competitive bidding from smaller providers that lack the ability to ‘cost-average’ on a nationwide basis,” the Wireless ISP Association commented. WISPA supports a single-round auction.