The FCC released rules for the 3.45 GHz auction, to start Oct. 5, in a Wednesday Wireless Bureau and Office of Economics and Analytics public notice. The FCC will auction 4,060 10 MHz flexible-use licenses in the contiguous 48 states and Washington, D.C., the PN said. All will be for 15 years and renewable. Licensees may hold up to four 10 MHz blocks in the band in any market. Short-form applications are due July 21, upfront payments Sept. 2. Staff rejected complaints by the Rural Wireless Association and Blooston carriers that the timing is too aggressive. The timing “is not only consistent with the Commission’s historical timing between spectrum auctions, it is actually considerably longer than the period between most recent spectrum auctions,” the FCC said: “Neither RWA nor Blooston have made any attempt to explain how this auction differs from previous spectrum auctions such that potential applicants need an entire year to prepare.” The agency adopted a $25 million cap on bidding credit discounts for an eligible small business and $10 million on discounts for an eligible rural service provider, same as proposed. “We are unpersuaded by comments suggesting that the adoption of a $25 million cap has inhibited participation by small businesses in recent auctions,” the PN said. It relented on minimum bids. “Given the totality of the comments regarding the proposed minimum opening bid amounts and how they might affect potential new entrants and small carriers, we adopt revised, lower minimum opening bid amounts … as proposed by Verizon and supported by US Cellular and T-Mobile,” the FCC said. The notice adopts 3 cents per MHz/POP for partial economic areas 1-50, .006 cent for PEAs 51-100 and .003 cent for all other markets, with a minimum bid of $1,000. The agency had proposed 6 cents/MHz/POP for PEAs 1-50 and 2 cents elsewhere. The PN rejected AT&T’s request to address the “no excess supply” rule in cases where a bidder wishes to reduce demand from two blocks to none and only one block of that reduction can be applied due to insufficient excess demand. “We disagree with AT&T’s premise that a license for a single block of spectrum in the 3.45 band cannot be used efficiently,” the FCC said. “This auction will bring us closer to 5G service that is fast, secure, resilient, and most importantly, available across the country,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. It had sought comment in a notice commissioners OK’d 4-0 in March (see 2103170061).
Microsoft President Brad Smith spoke with FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel on 5G, broadband, open radio access networks, the 12 GHz proceeding and a draft order on importation and marketing of devices, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 20-443. “Smith expressed support for the Commission’s adoption of its draft order allowing greater flexibility in the importation and marketing of radio frequency devices,” the filing said. In 12 GHz, Microsoft supports “ensuring that satellite operations in the … band are not undermined,” the filing said.
The FCC EDOCS electronic document management system suffered a system outage Monday that has been resolved, an agency spokesperson emailed Monday. The outage resulted in no generation of a Daily Digest Monday, nor were there any postings in EDOCS.
Industry trade groups said 21st Century Communications Video Accessibility Act rules are sufficient, but consumer groups want the FCC to examine and strengthen accessibility requirements for the online and streaming media due to problems that rose in use during the pandemic, per comments posted Tuesday in docket 21-140. “Acknowledge the wide range of Internet-Protocol-based multimodal communications services,” said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and other groups for the hearing-impaired. They asked the FCC to complete rollout of real-time text, update TV closed captioning rules, “vigorously enforce” rules, migrate the Disability Rights Office to a new Office of Civil Rights, and seek more authority on accessibility from Congress. NAB, NCTA and CTA said the rules are sufficient. “There is no need for the Commission to update its rules implementing the CVAA,” said NCTA. “No additional obligations are necessary or appropriate” now, said NAB. “Leverage” the emergency broadband benefit and emergency connectivity fund to increase connectivity to the disabled, CTIA said. “Evaluate the accessibility of emergency information, government press conferences, and other critical sources of public information presented through television,” urged the American Foundation for the Blind. ACA Connects said the FCC “bizarrely” never made rule changes from 2016 on programmer closed captioning certifications effective: “It is well past time for the Commission to address this by publishing with dispatch the requisite Federal Register notice.”
The Competitive Carriers Association disagrees with CTIA on one change CTIA sought on the FCC’s digital opportunity data collection rules (see 2105200021). CTIA asked to eliminate a requirement that mobile broadband providers submit “signal-strength ‘heat’ maps or, at minimum, require these maps to be submitted only upon request.” CCA said the disclosure of received signal strength indicator or reference signal received power “will provide useful information that will improve the quality of the collected data and help the Commission and industry assess and compare coverage maps,” in a filing posted Monday. CCA agreed with CTIA that the FCC should eliminate a requirement to “model in-vehicle coverage for each mobile wireless technology because such in-vehicle maps would be unnecessarily burdensome.” Focus on “the quality of the data collected rather than the quantity of maps,” CCA advised. T-Mobile backed CTIA complaints the FCC should drop a decision “to require mobile wireless providers to model in-vehicle coverage” and “to deny confidential treatment to mobile wireless providers’ link budgets.” Cutting “the requirement to submit in-vehicle coverage maps, which are much harder to replicate, would avoid unnecessary complications with the … challenge process and make it easier to implement other verification processes,” the carrier said. The Wireless ISP Association backed CTIA arguments against base fines of $15,000 for every “materially inaccurate or incomplete portion” of a data submission. “The Commission provides no explanation for adopting a base forfeiture that is five times higher than the base forfeitures for comparable programs other than a simple statement that this amount ‘reflect[s] the importance of the filings at issue’ and will ‘encourage compliance,’” WISPA said. Comments on two CTIA petitions were due Friday in docket 19-195.
The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act “struck an appropriate balance in advancing the complementary policy goals of promoting accessibility and encouraging innovation,” said the Information Technology Industry Council in comments posted Friday in FCC docket 21-140. ITI said the FCC should identify situations in which subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing could be used to satisfy IP captioning requirements in display-only monitors and video projectors that aren't equipped with digital tuners or streaming capability. The National Federation of the Blind wants improvements to the CVAA on audio description rules and how they apply to online streaming video. It wants streaming services required to buy described content when buying content rights, and MVPDs to provide multiple secondary audio channels. It seeks audio description quality standards.
Auto industry groups and Wi-Fi advocates clashed in comments on an FCC Further NPRM on sharing 5.9 GHz. Wednesday, ITS America and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn last year’s 5-0 FCC order dividing the band between Wi-Fi and auto safety (see 2106020076). Comments were due Wednesday in FCC docket 19-138. Proposed power limits on unlicensed devices “will fail to protect the 5.895-5.925 GHz band for intelligent transportation system (ITS) operations,” ITS America said. Work with the Department of Transportation “to ensure that the 30 MHz reserved for ITS … is free of harmful interference and usable for [vehicle to everything] technologies,” the group said. The order was “wrong and misguided,” AASHTO said. Protect ITS “from harmful interference” and let DOT and industry “best determine the technology to be used for the next generation of V2X,” Toyota said. The band is critical to the future of Wi-Fi, countered NCTA: “The newly available spectrum will improve the Wi-Fi experience.” Broadcom and Facebook urged taking “the next step by allowing portable devices” at power levels of 23 decibel-milliwatts of equivalent isotropically radiated power. Portable devices “have tremendous potential to bring to the consumer market new and innovative use cases,” they said. Drop plans for exclusion zones protecting federal radars “within which point-to-point and point-to-multipoint devices would be prohibited,” the Wi-Fi Alliance urged. Proposed power limits are adequate to protect V2X based on years of similar operations in the U-NII-3 band, the alliance said. The Wireless ISP Association said unlicensed use is safe for V2X, but the FCC should consider higher power limits for some uses outside of exclusion zones with protections like professional installation. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation petitioned for reconsideration. “Promote the smooth and rapid deployment of cellular [V2X] technology in the upper segment of the 5.9 GHz band by expeditiously issuing licenses to qualified users and requiring unlicensed entrants in the lower 45 megahertz segment … to pay for transitioned licensees’ relocation costs,” the alliance commented: “Implement safeguards to ensure that V2X can operate free from harmful interference.” The 5G Automotive Association asked the FCC to reconsider the order and stay provisions “that would permit unlicensed indoor access points, subordinate devices, and client devices to operate across the entire 5.850-5.895 GHz portion of the 5.9 GHz band beginning on July 2.”
FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will circulate a draft decision with final results "soon" on 911 fee diversion, she told the 911 strike force Thursday (see 2105170042). "We are wasting no time." Commissioners unanimously approved an NPRM in February (see 2102170049).
ITS America and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn last year’s 5-0 FCC order splitting the 5.9 GHz band between Wi-Fi and auto safety (see 2011180043). “The Commission’s actions … are in excess of the statutory authority,” they said. The decision to “reallocate 45 MHz of the 5.9 GHz band for use unrelated to automotive safety curtails the usefulness of the Safety Band, undercuts the goals of the Congressionally-established ITS program, and directly contravenes the recommendations of the agency responsible for designing and overseeing the [intelligent transportation system] program,” the groups said Wednesday, noting opposition by the Department of Transportation to the order. Vehicle-to-everything "technologies continue to be our best available tool to significantly reduce crashes,” said ITSA President Shailen Bhatt. The agency isn’t expected to rethink its approach (see 2105210047). The order “ensures much-needed Wi‑Fi capacity for consumers while also promoting the development of new connected car technologies,” WifiForward said in a statement: “The FCC acted well within its authority.” The commission didn't comment.
Revisions to the FCC rules on pro forma assignments and transfers of control should start with a declaratory ruling clarifying existing requirements, and an NPRM on proposals to streamline post-closing procedures to pro forma transactions, the Satellite Industry Association said Tuesday in docket 20-186. "As CTIA and USTelecom have correctly noted, the FCC has ample authority to proceed." SIA said the declaratory ruling would clear up uncertainty about such items as whether non-substantial changes in ownership constitute an assignment or transfer of control that necessitates filings and if pro forma filings are required only if a license is assigned or if a transfer of control affects the licensee's parent.