Oct. 17 FCC Agenda Includes LPTV, Interference, Small Cell Deployment Items

A declaratory ruling on FCC intentions for broadcasters in the incentive auction had been scheduled for the October meeting but was moved up to Tuesday’s meeting because of NAB’s court challenge against the incentive auction order, said an eighth-floor official. Moving the item up would have allowed the ruling to be approved before a deadline for NAB to file a brief in the proceeding, but that deadline was pushed back when Sinclair Broadcast also filed against the auction order. The ruling “clarifies” that the FCC intends to “make all reasonable efforts” to preserve broadcaster coverage area and population served for TV stations repacked after the incentive auction, said the September meeting agenda.

The declaratory ruling is a “procedurally suspect” manner of modifying the auction order in response to NAB’s court filings, said NAB Executive Vice President-Strategic Planning Rick Kaplan in an interview Friday. Kaplan said such rulings are usually issued in response to requests for clarification, but that no such request was made in this instance. The FCC did not comment.

The interference order is the same item circulated earlier this month, an FCC spokeswoman said in an email. The item would reject calls from broadcasters to put a cap on the amount of total aggregate interference any station can receive, said an eighth-floor official. Instead, it would discuss possible solutions for aggregate interference and the methodology for calculating it, the official said. Kaplan said NAB generally supports the order, with the exception of the opposition to an aggregate interference cap. The FCC previously proposed a 0.5 percent cap on the interference any one station would cause (CD July 8 p4).

"High-speed mobile broadband requires high-speed broadband buildout,” Wheeler said in a Friday blog post (http://fcc.us/1BgQrN4). “However, the regulatory burdens associated with deployments can be expensive and time-consuming. We have to fix that.” The order on circulation takes “concrete steps to immediately and substantially ease the burdens associated with deploying wireless equipment,” Wheeler said. It streamlines the process for developers seeking environmental and historic preservation review of DAS and small cell projects, he said. The goal is to make “state and local review more efficient for wireless deployments and modifications that are highly unlikely to affect local communities,” he said.

CTIA, PCIA, AT&T and others have urged the FCC to streamline or categorically exclude small cell and DAS deployments from National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act reviews. A CTIA official spoke with a Wireless Bureau official about the topic Tuesday, urging an outright exclusion, said a Thursday filing in docket 13-238 (http://bit.ly/1u3hif9). PCIA officials made the same arguments Sept. 16 (http://bit.ly/1rkonZd).

LPTV Vote Before Meeting?

It’s probable that the LPTV item will be voted on before the October meeting, said the eighth-floor official. The public notice suspending construction permit deadlines is expected to be approved, LPTV industry officials said in interviews Friday.

The LPTV NPRM -- circulating since earlier this month -- explores “various actions the Commission can take to mitigate the potential impact of the incentive auction and the repacking process on these stations,” said Wheeler in a blog post Friday (http://fcc.us/1BgQrN4). The NPRM is expected to explore how displacement of LPTV stations will be handled, and could seek comment on flexible use of spectrum for LPTV stations, said industry officials.

The spectrum frontiers NOI touches on a longstanding theme of the FCC that one next frontier for spectrum is very high frequency bands. Last year, before Wheeler arrived, the FCC approved an order aimed at promoting use of the 60 GHz band for wireless backhaul. Then-acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said then that the commission started to look at the 60 GHz band 15 years ago. “Those seeds ... are just beginning to blossom,” she said (CD Aug 12/13 p8). Also last year, the FCC Technological Advisory Council recommended further study of high frequency spectrum with an eye on gigabit-per-second speeds for mobile broadband (http://bit.ly/1wNHU3e).

"Early studies show that these new technologies -- what some are calling ‘5G’ -- can ultimately facilitate a throughput of up to 10 Gigabits/second, a speed that is orders of magnitude greater than that available today,” Wheeler said in the blog post. “Our effort here is to learn about the technology and ensure a regulatory environment where these technologies can flourish.” Wheeler tied the wireless items to the release of the iPhone 6, which saw lines forming at Apple stories across the U.S., according to media reports. “Last weekend’s record-setting launch of the new iPhone is just the latest reminder that our appetite for new mobile technologies appears to be insatiable,” he said.

CTIA President Meredith Baker agreed with Wheeler that the wireless market is extremely dynamic. “Wireless companies need smarter and faster infrastructure deployments in order to remain the world’s wireless leaders, which is why we welcome the FCC’s efforts to streamline this process,” she said. The look at spectrum frontiers is also critical, Baker said. It is “essential for policymakers to identify new sources of spectrum, and we look forward to working the commission as it starts this inquiry,” she said.

"The insatiable appetite for more mobile high-speed broadband data and coverage cannot be satisfied by wishing it so,” said Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association. “The job is not done, especially in rural America."

Wheeler also said the FCC will get an update from the Public Safety Bureau on an April outage that affected 911 operations in seven states. The outage was traced to a technical problem in a third-party vendor’s equipment, Wheeler said.