Satellite Industry Takes Aim at Thune's Spectrum Package

The provision “could result in severe disruption to the satellite industry and its customers’ networks, which together deliver vital services to millions of U.S. consumers,” Satellite Industry Association Senior Director-Policy Sam Black told David Quinalty, telecom policy director for Thune, in a letter last week, referring to the first Mobile Now draft. “In contrast to the relatively small number of earth stations operating in the 3550-3650 MHz band today in the United States, there are thousands of satellite earth stations in the 3700-4200 MHz band that serve a broad range of commercial, government, and academic users. The 3700-4200 MHz band is used by virtually all video programming networks and cable television companies to deliver programming to the public. It is also used to provide critical services to Americans living or working in rural areas of the United States. These satellite frequencies are also used to provide communications services to U.S. Navy vessels, including aircraft carriers.”

“I would say ‘hold your horses,’” argued Roger Entner, an analyst for Recon Analytics who has done research for CTIA. “Is it inconvenient to make do with less? Yes. But we have to look at what is technically possible.”

SIA members include Boeing, DirecTV, EchoStar, Intelsat, LightSquared and Northrop Grumman. The provision appears in both the earlier Mobile Now draft, circulated Nov. 6, under its Section 4 and again in the new version circulating Friday, under Section 11. The latest draft of Mobile Now is 45 pages, same as the old one, but moves around and adds some language. The old version had 18 sections, the new one 19. Unlike many provisions in the package, the language on 3700-4200 MHz doesn't seem to appear in prior legislative proposals. A Thune spokeswoman declined comment on the origin of the provision and satellite industry concerns. NAB and NCTA also declined comment.

Some Commerce Committee members are readying amendments for this week’s markup, or would like changes. Thune’s package “is a good first step, but Senator Rubio would like to strengthen the bill by ensuring the final version includes provisions from the Wireless Innovation Act, which he introduced earlier this year,” a spokeswoman for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told us, referring to S-1618 that Rubio introduced with several GOP backers. A GOP Senate staffer said Mobile Now draws from the Wireless Innovation Act, including its provisions on federal spectrum transparency and value. Both measures involve auction and reallocation timelines and incentives, but Rubio wants the final Thune package to include language dictating the amount of freed up spectrum that will go to licensed and unlicensed use, the staffer said.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., is considering offering an amendment, an aide told us. Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, plans to file one including his unlicensed spectrum proposal (see 1511120046). Thune called the legislation “time-sensitive” last week and told us he is working with other committees of jurisdiction to advance it, including Defense and Armed Services (see 1511100059).

Thune’s new draft supplies language for the earlier placeholder dig once section. The Mobile Now provision is substantially different from the language in the dig once sections of S-2163, a bill from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that would require the Transportation Department mandate installation of broadband conduit in certain highway projects. The idea received bipartisan support in the House and Senate. The Thune draft’s dig once section includes less-prescriptive language that would offer “the sense of Congress that Federal agencies should endeavor to create policy” that “evaluates and provides for the inclusion of broadband conduit installation in federally-funded highway construction projects.” One new section establishes the Mobile Now bill's relationship to the 2012 Spectrum Act. Nothing in the legislation “shall be construed to limit, restrict, or circumvent in any way the implementation” of FirstNet or rules implementing it, that section said.

The 3700-4200 MHz provision falls under a new section 11 titled “Reports on 3 Gigahertz Bands.” That section would compel a report from the Commerce Department within three years of enactment “identifying no less than 100 megahertz of spectrum between the frequencies of 3100 megahertz and 3550 megahertz that is most suitable for sharing with commercial unlicensed services to improve wireless broadband connectivity,” which was not in the original Thune draft. The section includes the provision worrying satellite industry stakeholders: Within three years, the FCC would have to “complete an inquiry regarding whether and, if so, how the Commission should apply rules that allow sharing between incumbent operations and new licensed and unlicensed services to bands between frequencies of 3700 megahertz and 4200 megahertz, including consideration of whether rules similar to those relating to the frequencies between 3550 megahertz and 3650 megahertz are appropriate for the frequencies between 3700 megahertz and 4200 megahertz,” the latest language read.

These Senate proposals “are likely either to damage significantly the satellite industry, which employs more than 250,000 Americans, to give the wireless industry access to spectrum it will not be able to use, or both,” SIA’s Black cautioned Quinalty. “The proposals could also negatively impact the 114 million U.S. television households, Americans in rural areas, and the U.S. military.”

“The knee-jerk reaction is always the same,” Entner said. “I sympathize with them.” The “spectrum that the satellites are using can be used more efficiently,” he insisted. “I find it difficult to believe satellites are using 500 MHz nationwide.”