FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said emphatically at a 5G Americas event Wednesday the U.S. will win the race to 5G and is easily beating China. Carr said the U.S. focus on high band spectrum and its free market system give the U.S. major advantages over China, where government, not the market, dictates how networks are built. “I bet on us,” he said.
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.
Areas of wide agreement among C-band users, satellite operators and other stakeholders are emerging, and with them issues that need resolution before the FCC acts or through an eventual order, experts and a policymaker said Tuesday. All agree that some frequencies will be repurposed for 5G, said FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. "There is a broad consensus on at least a couple of points," said NAB Associate General Counsel Patrick McFadden: Spectrum will be repurposed, content delivery using the satellite band should be protected, and "end users should be held harmless."
Pursue granularity and accuracy of broadband mapping data so consumers aren't trapped in broadband deserts when government funding is unavailable in areas deemed served, NTCA replied on FCC digital opportunity data collection (see 1909240005). Commenters differed on a latency-reporting obligation and most opposed collecting prices. DODC replies posted through Tuesday in docket 19-195.
T-Mobile and Sprint likely have a better chance of prevailing in the state challenge to their deal than an objective legal analysis would suggest, New Street’s Blair Levin told investors this weekend. The broader deal with DOJ includes the sale of assets to Dish Network so it can launch a wireless competitor. “Underneath the legal framework is a question that we believe the judge will constantly be asking himself: are American consumers better off in the long-run with the proposed DISH and T-Mobile business plans or are they better off with Sprint going through some kind of unspecified financial restructuring, sale of assets, and other business moves?” Levin wrote. T-Mobile CEO John Legere and Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen will be “compelling witnesses for the former,” Levin said: “To the best of our knowledge, there will not be any businesspersons arguing in detail for the latter. That asymmetry, we believe, will be a major dynamic in the trial and the key reason we see the odds as closer than traditional antitrust analysis would suggest.” A trial on the case against the deal by state attorneys general starts Dec. 9 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see 1909300033). The FCC, meanwhile, approved a waiver Monday allowing Sprint to bid in the December auction of high-band spectrum in the upper 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands. T-Mobile earlier got a similar waiver (see 1908270033). The FCC dismissed as moot waiver requests by the two carriers and Dish of the same rules for the related asset sale agreement among the three companies. The Office of Economics and Analytics and Wireless Bureau said in docket 19-59 that waiver isn’t necessary.
The FCC said 39 companies filed short-form applications to bid in the auction of high-band spectrum in the upper 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands, which starts Dec. 10. Among those with complete applications are T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular and numerous smaller carriers, including Blue Ridge Wireless, East Kentucky Network, Horry Telephone Co-op and Alaska Wireless Network. The FCC said 10 companies filed short-form applications deemed incomplete. They include Docomo Pacific, Nsight Spectrum, Union Telephone Company, Windstream Services and Zebra Microsystems. The Office of Economics and Analytics and the Wireless Bureau released the public notice Monday. Those filing incomplete applications have until Oct. 22 to address deficiencies. Upfront payments are due that same day. In the initial high-band auctions, Verizon, U.S. Cellular and T-Mobile were the big bidders in the 28 GHz auction, AT&T and T-Mobile in the 24 GHz auction (see 1906030063).
The FCC has to challenge California and other state net neutrality rules, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s ruling last week, to keep the internet from being shaped by “the lowest common denominator,” said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly on the C-Span’s The Communicators taped hours after the ruling Tuesday. The episode was scheduled to have been shown Saturday. O’Rielly also discussed 5G, media ownership and FCC pre-emption of state and local rules to promote nationwide deployment of broadband infrastructure. “Saying that a particular boundary of a state which may have been decided decades or hundreds of years ago based on geography or some military conflict ... it’s just artificial,” O’Rielly said.
T-Mobile thinks moving programming transmissions from the C band to fiber is critical. It proposes an incentive auction. “The primary goal of this proceeding is clear” -- to lead on 5G -- so the U.S. must “make hundreds of megahertz of spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band available for terrestrial use,” said a filing in docket 18-122, posted Thursday on a series of FCC meetings: “An important component of maximizing the amount of C-band spectrum for 5G services includes the use of an alternative transport mechanism, such as fiber, to ensure the reliable delivery of the content currently carried by satellites using the spectrum.” The company opposes a plan by the C-Band Alliance, which isn't based on moving operations to fiber (see 1909180061). The carrier met with the leaders of the International Bureau, the offices of Economics and Analytics and of Engineering and Technology and Wireless Bureau staff. The Educational Media Foundation, meanwhile, told officials it makes significant use of the band to distribute programming to stations. Changing its operations to address reallocation “would impose significant cost on EMF,” the nonprofit said. EMF met with Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel and aides to the other commissioners.
A private auction of C-band spectrum would violate Communications Act Section 309(j), Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, told William Davenport, an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. That’s “regardless of whether a private auction was conditioned on FCC-like protections and/or a contribution of some share of revenue to the Treasury,” Calabrese said in a docket 18-295 letter, posted Monday.
The FCC Office of Economics and Analytics projects three auctions from now through Sept. 30, 2020. Two are already scheduled and a third was promised by Chairman Ajit Pai. The notice doesn’t mention any auctions tied to the USF, including a Mobility Fund II auction. A C-band auction didn’t make the list. The first auction listed is that of the 37, 39, 47 GHz bands, to start Dec. 10 (see 1904120065) and the second is the 3.5 GHz priority access licenses auction, to start June 25 (see 1909260040). The third hasn’t been scheduled, for 2.5 GHz educational broadband service licenses.
Telecom sector supply chain security and spectrum legislation drew enthusiastic support from House Communications Subcommittee members and witnesses during a Friday hearing, as expected (see 1909260056). They gave no clear guidance during on how they want to proceed on the seven measures the panel examined. Lawmakers focused much of their attention on the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act (HR-4459) and the Studying How to Harness Airwave Resources Efficiently Act (HR-4462), though they also showed interest in other measures.