Pai Expected to Seek July Vote on 2.5 GHz Band, Despite ED Concerns

Pai was expected to propose changes for the band at the June FCC meeting but didn't (see 1905130054). A year ago, commissioners approved 4-0 an NPRM about changes to the band, including an incentive auction like the one for TV broadcast spectrum (see 1805100053).

Pai had the order ready last month and it’s expected to go this month, said lawyers active in the 2.5 GHz proceeding. The FCC declined to comment.

“While we appreciate the [Education Department’s] participation and its support for many of the positions taken by the EBS community in the rulemaking, we’re not sure what impact [the] letter will have at this point,” said Ed Lavergne, counsel to the Catholic Television Network. “The docket has been open for over a year and we expect a vote in July. Our hope is that the FCC will preserve the educational nature of EBS as we have asked in our many filings and meetings with the commission over the past year.” Lavergne said the FCC’s flexible use rules “fostered a wide variety of educational uses of the band and created a robust secondary market for commercial broadband service, including 5G.”

“The current usage of the educational band is local and limited,” said Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics. “I would expect Chairman Pai to stay his current course.”

“EBS has long been underutilized, and it's time for an aggressive change,” said Doug Brake, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy: “Even if you like the social policy the band is trying to achieve, the end result has been a fragmented band where the initial rights often just get sold anyways.” Few schools actually use the band to provide broadband, Brake said. The goal of connecting education institutions “would be much better achieved if the FCC took bold steps to move this spectrum to 5G services, and also worked to expand and improve E-rate to directly support robust connectivity,” he said.

Other groups hope the FCC will rethink rejiggering the rules for the band. National EBS Association Executive Director Lee Solonche told us he hopes the filing “gives the chairman and the FCC pause.” The NPRM is more than a year old, but “this is a complex proceeding and as the … filing is testimony, many within the education community are only now realizing the full implications" of the rulemaking, Solonche said: “We hope the FCC has fully considered both the long-standing benefits and new potential this band holds for education, particularly in rural communities.”

The American Library Association “has shared with the FCC that allowing EBS licenses to be commercialized would basically abandon the public interest value of this spectrum and turn the licenses over to large companies that may not have the same incentives as smaller non-profit entities to serve the needs of their communities,” emailed Policy Fellow Ellen Satterwhite. “Under the existing rules, more than 500 libraries have developed very popular partnerships with non-profit providers of mobile hotspot services to serve their communities.”

The Education Department filing “is consistent with the state education organizations in Utah, Nebraska and North Carolina that recognize the unique value that the EBS provides for schools and students across the country,” said Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen. A recent SHLB study (see 1905150053) found "overwhelming economic benefits” in awarding EBS licenses to schools and tribes, he said: “Our hope is that the commission will follow suit in realizing that we cannot sacrifice this opportunity to reduce the rural homework gap by 30 percent."