Incentive Auction Transition Period Likely Long Enough, CTIA Chief Says

“When you’re asking carriers to step up and spend billions of dollars on spectrum ... it’s fair to give them an orderly and timely transition,” Baker said. “Congress has said 39 months.” Longer than three years is "a good time frame,” she said. If someone wants a bigger house, 39 months would be a long time to wait, she said. “Maybe you’re going to buy a different house.” CTIA cares about broadcasters and wants to make the transition work for everyone, she said.

“Before we start talking about changing the time frame, I think we all need to work together,” Baker said. “We need to roll up our sleeves and get to work and see what we can do to have an orderly transition.” Baker said the AWS-1 and DTV transitions show complicated changes can be completed relatively quickly when government and industry work together.

“Broadcasters should have confidence that we’re going to show up at this auction like we always do with billions of dollars,” Baker said. “We have worked together for the last six years to make this happen.” Wireless carriers have expressed differing opinions on whether the FCC should make a decision on the repacking deadline later in the process, after it becomes clear how many broadcasters will have to be relocated (see 1602250038).

NAB responded to Baker. "We would respectfully remind her that Congress never established a 39-month repacking deadline in the legislation it passed," a spokesman said. "That is a completely arbitrary timeline set by the FCC, as has been noted by CTIA’s own members. There is absolutely no reason for the FCC to set a deadline until after we know the exact scope of this project and the exact number of broadcasters who will have to be repacked.”

Baker was asked how interested carriers are in the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band. The commission is considering what officials say are final tweaks to rules for the band (see 1603110083). “It’s hard to say until those rules are final and we still have a ways to go to see what those rules look like,” said Baker. “There’s interest across the industry because everyone is looking for spectrum.” Whether carriers will bid for priority access licenses (PALs), which are to be offered in an FCC auction, depends on the final rules, she said. The length of the licenses and power levels for the PALs are key, she said. Carriers are also interested in unlicensed use of the band, Baker said. “There’s such a spectrum shortage that we can’t get any band wrong,” she said. "This one is important to get right."

CTIA officials recently looked at whether to change the group’s name, Baker said. The initials CTIA at this point really don't stand for anything, she said. CTIA did a broad survey, she said. “People were split 50/50,” she said. “Should we keep CTIA or should we drop it. We decided to keep it because the audiences that we knew actually knew who CTIA was and that mattered to us.” The group decided at the end to refresh its brand to “CTIA -- Everything Wireless,” Baker said. CEA last year became CTA.

Baker stressed the importance of high-band spectrum to carriers. The FCC is looking at 10,000 MHz that could be available for wireless, she said. “Right now, we use 600 MHz total,” she said. “That’s 16 times more spectrum than we have today.” But the high frequency spectrum reaches “meters, not miles” and will be dependent on small cells “the size of a smoke alarm,” she said. “For us to lead I think we need to move very quickly,” she said. “We need simple rules because this is technologically really hard. We don’t need the licensing regime to make it any harder.”

Some of the exclusion zones in the bands being looked at by the FCC are already getting smaller, Baker said. “We’ve made good progress and we have more to go.” CTIA is also very focused on the IoT, Baker said. “It means that there are going to be millions and billions of sensors out there and everything is going to be connected.”