CTIA Seeks Nuts-and-Bolts Changes to Incentive Auction Rules
CTIA filed a letter at the FCC Thursday laying out its bottom-line advice on rules for the TV incentive auction. Headed into next week’s vote on those rules by the FCC (see 1506250057), CTIA urged a “stop buzzer” to halt harmful interference from white spaces devices and wireless mics using the 600 MHz spectrum, in the letter, and sought eight “reforms” to the rules. CTIA President Meredith Baker, a former commissioner, signed the letter.
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CTIA said interference protection is critical to active carrier participation in the auction. “The Commission’s regulatory framework needs to recognize the statutorily guaranteed rights of licensed services and protect them accordingly, which the current proposal fails to do,” CTIA said. “The success of the auction assumes carriers will bid billions of dollars, and that cannot happen absent clear and understood interference protection. The Commission’s rules should minimize impairment of licensed bands and protect licensed services from harmful interference as mandated in the Spectrum Act.”
CTIA also urged the FCC to abandon its current 20 percent cap on interference in favor of less interference and more flexibility. "The FCC should produce near-nationwide band plans based on a sliding scale approach, which yields lower impairments and higher clearing targets, rather than adopt a rigid 20 percent threshold,” CTIA said.
The FCC also should re-think its proposal to allow secondary users to operate in auctioned bands after the auction is completed. “The Commission should define the term ‘commencement of operations’ in a manner that enables licensees to conduct pre-deployment testing without encumbrances from secondary users and should not burden licensees with obligations to provide multiple, ongoing notifications to secondary users in order to access their own spectrum,” CTIA said.
CTIA urged the FCC to “streamline” the inter-service interference prevention and resolution process. “The wireless industry is committed to the Commission’s efforts to minimize interference between remaining broadcast stations and new 600 MHz wireless licensees,” CTIA said. “We believe that common objective can be best met without the need for repetitive inter-service interference analysis.”
The FCC should allow more than the two days now proposed between the reverse auction, where broadcasters put their spectrum up for sale, and the forward auction, CTIA said. “The Commission should allow at least 10 business days between the release of the provisional 600 MHz band plan and granular data on impairments and the launch of the forward auction,” the wireless association said. “This brief extension of a few days will help contribute to a more successful auction.” CTIA also stressed the importance of making information available to bidders well in advance of the auction.
A successful auction is critical to the wireless industry's future, CTIA said. “The spectrum repurposed through a successful incentive auction will help meet the expected six- to seven-fold increase in mobile data traffic within five years, as well as facilitate opportunities for innovative communications services, including mobile health, Internet of Things, education, and other mobile broadband-related initiatives.”