FCC Staff Working on Dish Terrestrial Broadband Waiver Order Eye Protecting H Block

Some of the agency officials think it’s key that the H block remain relatively unencumbered by Dish’s forthcoming service, so the block can be auctioned and built out for wireless broadband, agency and industry officials said. H is at 1995-2000 MHz. A rulemaking notice this winter proposed to use Dish’s spectrum at 2000-2020 MHz for the company’s uplink, and would give Dish another 20 MHz for a downlink. Sprint Nextel, interested in bidding on H and owner of spectrum at 1990-1995 MHz it’s building out for broadband, has said the DBS company would cause so much interference to H that it would render the spectrum hard to use. Dish contends that moving its uplink up 5 MHz to 2005-2025 MHz, as the rulemaking notice asked about, would cause so much interference to the company’s spectrum from government broadcast-TV operations that start at 2025 MHz that it wouldn’t be able to use 2020-2025 MHz (CD Sept 19 p4).

Wireless Bureau staff now are weighing Dish and Sprint’s arguments in considering several options which the officials may put in an order that would then be sent to the office of Chairman Julius Genachowski to circulate for a vote, agency and industry officials said. One option would have Dish move its uplink up 5 MHz, which some at the agency and in industry said they think is the most likely option to be contained in the forthcoming draft. Another option which those officials watching the proceeding said is a possibility but somewhat less likely is for the staff to require Dish to limit its uplink emissions. That would cut the potential for Dish to interfere with the H block, and also might require lower power levels, industry officials said. Another option is for the staff to conclude Dish need not move or limit emissions, agency and industry officials said. Dish and Sprint representatives had no comment.

At issue is what spectrum to use as guard bands, on the lower part of Dish’s uplink spectrum between it and the H block, and at the top part of the company’s frequencies between them and government and broadcast operations, said agency and satellite and wireless industry officials. They said one possibility is for Dish to have to use 2020-2025 MHz essentially as a guard band between it and those government and broadcast operations. That would leave 2000-2005 MHz essentially vacant. Bureau staff haven’t determined how to proceed, and are giving a lot of attention to the various options before them, agency and industry officials said. February’s spectrum law “requires the FCC to auction the AWS-2 H block, with proceeds going to FirstNet and deficit reduction,” an agency spokesman said by email. “Staff is performing due diligence on the impacts AWS-4 rules may have on this Congressional directive."

Any provision of the forthcoming order requiring Dish to ameliorate interference it could cause to the H block, once that block is auctioned and built out, wouldn’t necessarily be a windfall provision per se because it wouldn’t bar the company from selling the frequencies, agency and industry officials said. They said it could have the effect of limiting somewhat the value of the spectrum to Dish, if it turned out the company either had to reduce power or not use 5 MHz of its uplink to keep it as a guard band. In such a scenario, Dish might have no use for all of the 20 MHz of a downlink that the order will likely allow the company to use, because most spectrum uplinks and downlinks are paired so they're the same amount of frequency, some industry officials said. But one FCC official said broadband operations such as what Dish aims to construct may be able to use an asynchronous chunk of frequencies, which would let Dish use the entire 20 MHz downlink and 15 of the 20 MHz uplink for operations.

Not moving Dish now wouldn’t prevent the FCC from dealing with any interference concerns later in the H block, and would let the company deploy its broadband service with the entire 40 MHz of spectrum, said Vice President Cathy Sloan of the Computer & Communications Industry Association. Its members include Dish and Sprint, and CCIA has opposed moving the first company’s uplink. Dish is a “victim” of interference from government earth stations that communicate with satellites, and broadcast auxiliary services, and also could potentially be a “source” of interference to whichever company uses the H block, said Chief Technology Officer Chris Horne of LBA Group. The firm does engineering consulting for radio and carrier clients.

"Interference is real -- both interband and intraband,” Horne said. “That would happen if equipment is not filtered out properly and there are not guard channels in place.” A 5 MHz guard band at both ends of Dish’s uplink spectrum is “ideal,” he said: “I agree with both the Sprint position and the Dish position” that both companies could be a “victim” of interference. Spectrum expert Jim Snider, a proponent of government spectrum auctions or making available unlicensed radiowaves who’s not involved in this proceeding, thinks the FCC should give Dish spectrum “flexibility,” but with only a quarter of its spectrum and the rest should be sold, he said. Snider said giving the company a waiver for the entire 40 MHz as the rulemaking proposes “is equivalent to giving away to the hot dog licensee in Central Park the rights to build condos in Central Park based on the theory that, if you need condos in Central Park, this is the only politically feasible way to get them because you cannot take away the hot dog license because the hot dog licensee owns the license for free in perpetuity.”