Industry experts said the 3.45 GHz auction, to start Oct. 5, is likely to be a success, with AT&T and Dish Network in particular seen as keen to pick up more mid-band spectrum. But questions remain about the level of data provided by the government. Upfront payments, the first expression of bidder interest, are due July 21 (see 2106090078). The reserve price for federal agencies to clear the spectrum and for the auction to close is $15 billion.
Wireless Spectrum Auctions
The FCC manages and licenses the electromagnetic spectrum used by wireless, broadcast, satellite and other telecommunications services for government and commercial users. This activity includes organizing specific telecommunications modes to only use specific frequencies and maintaining the licensing systems for each frequency such that communications services and devices using different bands receive as little interference as possible.
What are spectrum auctions?
The FCC will periodically hold auctions of unused or newly available spectrum frequencies, in which potential licensees can bid to acquire the rights to use a specific frequency for a specific purpose. As an example, over the last few years the U.S. government has conducted periodic auctions of different GHz bands to support the growth of 5G services.
CTIA and other commenters urged the FCC to use caution as it considers adopting out-of-band emissions in the 24 GHz band aligned with limits adopted at the 2019 World Radiocommunication Conference, in filings posted Tuesday in docket 21-186. NTIA supports adoption of the WRC limits (see 2106280039). Comments were due Monday (see 2105260023). WRC-19 adopted emission limits not at the edge of the 24 GHz band, “but rather, as a limit on the total radiated power” wireless base and mobile stations can radiate into any 200 megahertz of the 23.6-24.0 GHz passive Earth Exploration Satellite Service (EESS) band,” CTIA said. WRC recommended two sets of limits for base stations and user equipment, one that applies now, and another set of limits for equipment brought into use after Sept. 1, CTIA noted. “As CTIA and other commenters have explained throughout this proceeding, the Commission’s existing OOBE limits are sufficient to protect EESS operations from interference,” the group said: The part used for wireless is separated by 250 MHz from “EESS passive sensing operations in the 23.6-24.0 GHz band.” The limits approved by the WRC “will provide even greater protection to passive EESS operations than is necessary, while still allowing for robust 5G deployment in the band," CTIA said. Nokia said its 24 GHz equipment can meet the initial limit of -33 dBW/200MHz before a Sept. 1, 2027, deadline and is working on the Phase 2 limit of -39 dBW/200MHz. “This effort requires close cooperation with radio frequency integrated circuit vendors to develop next generation of chipsets that can offer improved Power Amplifier linearity for the restrictive emission limit by the 2027 deadline,” Nokia said. The FCC’s current -13 dBm/MHz unwanted emissions limit below the lower 24.25 GHz edge of the band “should be maintained for mobile operations in the 24 GHz band because that limit provides adequate interference protection” of EESS passive systems, Qualcomm said. If the FCC adopts “substantially more stringent unwanted emissions limits” approved by the WRC “they should only be applied to mobile service base stations and handsets -- and not to any of the other operations” FCC rules allow, Qualcomm said. The FCC should be “cautious when it modifies its rules governing spectrum that has already been auctioned so as not to disrupt ongoing planning and deployment activities,” T-Mobile commented. The WRC limits “should apply only to mobile … and are not applicable to fixed operations permitted in the same band,” the carrier said. Opening the 26 GHz band for licensed use should be an FCC priority, CTIA said: “Because the Commission has already made spectrum in the 24 GHz and 28 GHz bands available for 5G, moving forward with the 26 GHz band is a rare opportunity to make a wide, contiguous swath of spectrum available for already globally harmonized, licensed use.”
The House Appropriations Committee’s proposed report on the Financial Services Subcommittee-cleared measure to fund the FCC and FTC in FY 2022 seeks further work on changes to USF contribution rules and wants additional study of how municipal broadband can expand connectivity access. The committee was still considering the underlying bill late Tuesday afternoon. Dueling panels of telecom policy officials disagreed on how lawmakers should translate into legislation the $65 billion broadband component in a bipartisan infrastructure package framework President Joe Biden endorsed last week (see 2106240070).
Telecom-focused lawmakers want to see more information on how a bipartisan infrastructure proposal President Joe Biden backed Thursday structures broadband spending. Some Democrats also cited a likely follow-up bill to address, via budget reconciliation, infrastructure spending not in this compromise as a potential vehicle for more connectivity money. The Biden-backed deal includes $65 billion for broadband, the same the administration previously offered during unsuccessful talks with Senate Republicans (see 2105270072).
Aerospace Industries Association, Rural Wireless Associations and Blooston petitions to reconsider the 3.45 GHz band order got pushback Tuesday in docket 19-348. CTIA said in an opposition the AIA petition is an attempt to essentially elevate Part 5 experimental license holders from non-interfering secondary operations to co-primary status through a new coordination framework, and presents nothing new as the basis for a reconsideration. CTIA said it opposes RWA's request the license term for new flexible-use licenses drop from 15 years to 10, since 15 years ensures new licensees have time to deploy service given DOD repurposing. T-Mobile said the FCC correctly rejected a coordination framework for federal contractors, and reversing that would undermine the proceeding's purpose of making more spectrum available for commercial mobile services. It said calls by RWA and small carriers represented by Blooston law firm to license on a countywide basis run contrary to the idea that licensing by partial economic area will better let carriers aggregate the spectrum across similar bands like C. AT&T said the petitions could delay the start of Auction 110, and they recycle previously made arguments. RWA said it backs Blooston's call to reconsider licensing 10 3.45 GHz channel blocks as PEAs, but the agency should license them instead by county. RWA agreed with Blooston that Auction 110 short form application deadlines should be delayed to Q1.
NCTA and cable operators opposed higher power levels in the citizens broadband radio service band, in calls with FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staffers. “Raising the power levels for CBRS would fundamentally alter the nature of the service by undermining the innovative spectrum sharing concept that the Commission enabled when it adopted the CBRS framework, endangering new and innovative approaches to service delivery, inhibiting competition, and undermining auction business cases and expectations,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 19-348. Representatives of Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Enterprises, Midcontinent Communications and CableLabs participated.
The FCC released rules for the 3.45 GHz auction, to start Oct. 5, in a Wednesday Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics public notice. The FCC will auction 4,060 10 MHz flexible-use licenses in the contiguous 48 states and Washington, D.C., the PN said. All will be for 15 years and renewable. Licensees may hold up to four 10 MHz blocks in the band in any market. Short-form applications are due July 21, upfront payments Sept. 2. Staff rejected complaints by the Rural Wireless Association and Blooston carriers that the timing is too aggressive. The timing “is not only consistent with the Commission’s historical timing between spectrum auctions, it is actually considerably longer than the period between most recent spectrum auctions,” the FCC said: “Neither RWA nor Blooston have made any attempt to explain how this auction differs from previous spectrum auctions such that potential applicants need an entire year to prepare.” The agency adopted a $25 million cap on bidding credit discounts for an eligible small business and $10 million on discounts for an eligible rural service provider, same as proposed. “We are unpersuaded by comments suggesting that the adoption of a $25 million cap has inhibited participation by small businesses in recent auctions,” the PN said. It relented on minimum bids. “Given the totality of the comments regarding the proposed minimum opening bid amounts and how they might affect potential new entrants and small carriers, we adopt revised, lower minimum opening bid amounts … as proposed by Verizon and supported by US Cellular and T-Mobile,” the FCC said. The notice adopts 3 cents per MHz/POP for partial economic areas 1-50, .006 cent for PEAs 51-100 and .003 cent for all other markets, with a minimum bid of $1,000. The agency had proposed 6 cents/MHz/POP for PEAs 1-50 and 2 cents elsewhere. The PN rejected AT&T’s request to address the “no excess supply” rule in cases where a bidder wishes to reduce demand from two blocks to none and only one block of that reduction can be applied due to insufficient excess demand. “We disagree with AT&T’s premise that a license for a single block of spectrum in the 3.45 band cannot be used efficiently,” the FCC said. “This auction will bring us closer to 5G service that is fast, secure, resilient, and most importantly, available across the country,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. It had sought comment in a notice commissioners OK’d 4-0 in March (see 2103170061).
“More and more” of AT&T’s spectrum is being redeployed for 5G, and it won’t disclose the makeup, Senior Vice President-Wireless and Access Technology Igal Elbaz told a UBS webinar Friday. Previously, carriers had to take a band out of service and re-farm it, he said. Dynamic spectrum sharing “really allows you to run both 4G and 5G, all in the same band,” he said. The 80 MHz of C band that AT&T bought in the recent auction is “extremely important in order for us, and by the way, for the industry, to scale 5G,” he said. AT&T is “very happy” with its current spectrum position, he said. AT&T will start to deploy C band at year-end, with plans to cover 75 million POPs at the end of 2022 and 200 million at the end of 2023, he said.
Groups representing educational broadband service licensees asked to delay a 2.5 GHz auction until after a better FCC inventory of available areas. Dish Network endorses the single-round auction format sought by T-Mobile, in replies posted through Friday in docket 20-429. T-Mobile, which hopes for a 2021 auction, cited problems with the inventory (see 2105040077). “Past Commission Chairs have routinely announced when auctions will be conducted even before the Commission proposes procedures for the auction,” T-Mobile said: “Commenters have already provided substantial information" for updating the licensing database. “Implement a process to update and correct the inventory prior to the auction,” said the National EBS Association. “The inventory should not include county/frequency blocks where there is no white space at all, or where the white space is entirely over water, or where the white space has no population.” The list must be “completely accurate,” the Catholic Technology Network said. The North American Catholic Educational Programming Foundation and Mobile Beacon urged an updated database first. Dish saw “substantial support” for a single-round auction: “DISH agrees with several commenters, and the Commission itself, that a single round auction with pay-as-bid pricing will promote diverse auction participation and give smaller providers a chance to get the spectrum they need.” If the FCC adopts a simultaneous multiple-round format, keep the rules simple and consistent with past auctions, Dish said. SMR is “generally a superior method for allocating spectrum than a single bid format,” AT&T said: “But, as the Notice and comments confirm, the circumstances here are far from ordinary, and the commenters who support an SMR format fail to engage.” Verizon saw broad SMR support. Nationwide carriers to “small and rural carriers” agree that “will create a more competitive auction that enables bidders of all sizes to have a fair shot,” Verizon said: “Many bidders prefer the certainty that comes with better price discovery.” The Wireless ISP Association sought a single round auction that’s “neither novel nor untested.”
Drafts released Thursday revealed details of what acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wants FCC colleagues to vote on at the members' June 17 meeting. On letting companies market RF devices pending FCC authorization, a draft would allow a greater number of the products than initially suggested. CTA sought limited marketing and sales of wireless devices to consumers before they're authorized.