FCC to Take on Business Data Services Rules by Year-End, Wheeler Tells CTIA

The agency will address the price of business data services (BDS), the FCC’s new name for special access, by the end of the year, Wheeler promised. “Back when I was at CTIA, members were constantly telling me that we needed to do something about special access,” he said. “But the reality of trade association politics kept that from happening. Action on this issue is a long time coming. But that time has arrived.” Nearly every wireless carrier supports the FCC-proposed BDS rules, Wheeler said. BDS rules are critical to the large number of small cells that will be needed to make 5G a reality, he said.

Fifth-generation wireless service will fill a hole, Wheeler said. What’s missing today? he asked. “Ultra-high-speed, high-capacity, low-latency, secure mobile connectivity,” Wheeler said. “As you all know, that's what 5G is going to deliver.” The agency is allocating high-band, mid-band and low-band spectrum for 5G, Wheeler said. He also said the FCC will continue to work with local governments to speed up siting of new wireless facilities.

The commission is in the midst of a “historic” incentive auction, Wheeler said. “For as long as I can recall, this industry has had a constant refrain that government should make available more spectrum,” he said. “Congress responded to that request” and created the incentive auction, he said. Bidding resumes next week in a new reverse auction to determine the cost to clear 114 MHz of spectrum, he said. “Following that, we’ll again turn to the forward auction to determine if that spectrum is worth that cost to you.”

Two years ago, Wheeler made waves at the CTIA show by saying tough new net neutrality rules would take in mobile as well as wireline connections (see 1409110030). His remarks Wednesday, at what is expected to be his last CTIA annual meeting as chairman, were mostly conciliatory.

The FCC “will facilitate experimentation and innovation” by “soon launching our electronic filing system to accept applications for program experimental licenses,” Wheeler said. “Experimental licensing has led to countless wireless innovations through the generations of wireless technologies. The new program licenses will provide much greater flexibility for researchers, universities, OEMs, and other innovators to conduct experiments and field tests of 5G technologies at scale."

Wheeler said when he was president of CTIA, in the early days of wireless, there were only 10 million wireless subscribers in the U.S. Wheeler said he first stood on a CTIA stage in 1992: “We’ve gone from celebrating 10 million mobile subscribers to having more people around the world connected to the mobile network than to the electric grid.” There are “more people with mobile phones than toothbrushes,” he said.

Wheeler only briefly mentioned controversial privacy rules for ISPs, another area where regulation is expected as early as October (see 1608260055). “A lot of the value of 5G will come from the exploitation of big data, so it’s imperative that carriers have privacy policies that enable customers to understand and control how their personal information is being used,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, almost 40 public interest groups posted a letter they sent to the FCC telling the agency it shouldn't change proposed rules to provide a “special carve-out for ‘de-identified’ customer information.” The FCC also should “resist calls to require opt-in consent only for sensitive information, as Congress did not intend for the Commission to make such a distinction,” the letter said. “We also strongly encourage the Commission to prohibit mandatory arbitration clauses, which often leave consumers without any reasonable means of recourse.” The Center for Digital Democracy, Free Press and Public Knowledge were among the groups that signed on.

The letter also opposed rules to allow ISPs to offer customers less privacy at lower prices: “Pay-for-privacy plans are very concerning because of their overall reduction in privacy and their potential to coerce consumers, particularly low-income consumers, to give away their privacy by charging a substantial sum unrelated to the actual value of the data. Plans that protect consumer privacy can cost up to $800 more per year. Consumers should not have to choose between broadband and their right to privacy.”

More than a quarter million Americans “have spoken out and filed comments against the FCC’s baldly transparent proposal on expansive new privacy rules that regulate certain companies while exempting some of the web’s biggest data collectors,” Protect Internet Freedom National Director Drew Johnson emailed in response. “If the FCC truly values public input on its proposed regulations, it can’t ignore the fact that nearly 8 out of 10 comments submitted into the docket from the American people were against its proposed privacy NPRM -- not in support of it.”

The agency should approve privacy rules that don’t single out ISPs for special treatment, said Baker, speaking before Wheeler.

One big takeaway from the show so far is “5G is coming and it’s coming fast,” Baker said. The first 5G trials were announced last year at the conference, she said. “This week, you’ll get a glance of what 5G will actually be,” she said. Fifth-generation “will be transformative” and faster than many wireline connections, she said. “The next president must have an aggressive 5G plan,” she said. “Every company today has a mobile schedule. So too must our nation.” Baker praised the FCC for making high-frequency spectrum available through its spectrum frontiers order and urged Wheeler to schedule the first auction of the newly reallocated spectrum.