LAS VEGAS -- T-Mobile has to focus on sub-1 GHz spectrum if it wants to compete with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, and T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham offered a concrete reason why during a panel discussion at the Competitive Carriers Association annual meeting Tuesday. T-Mobile has only a single license below 1 GHz, a 700 MHz A-block license in Boston, acquired as part of T-Mobile’s acquisition of MetroPCS.

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC should at least consider selling 600 MHz spectrum in smaller license sizes than economic area (EA) licenses, FCC acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said Tuesday, following a keynote at the Competitive Carriers Association’s annual conference. Carrier executives told us the FCC may be considering license sizes somewhere between EAs and the much smaller cellular market area (CMA) licenses, possibly something along the line of component economic area licenses (CEAs), a category previously developed by the FCC. CCA recently adopted a position in favor of CMAs over EAs for the incentive auction (CD June 20 p1).

LAS VEGAS -- The upcoming incentive auction of TV spectrum will likely be the biggest event in the next 10 years for the wireless industry, said Neville Ray, T-Mobile chief technology officer, during a Tuesday keynote speech to the Competitive Carriers Association. Verizon Wireless controls 54.7 MHz of sub-1 GHz spectrum and AT&T 48 MHz, so other carriers are desperate for the 600 MHz spectrum the FCC will auction, Ray said.

T-Mobile and Verizon jointly submitted a proposed band plan to the FCC for the incentive auction in the 600 MHz band. “While we continue to support our respective positions on issues raised in this proceeding, we agree strongly that our proposed band plan will best enable the wireless industry to meet the public’s burgeoning demand for mobile broadband services,” the carriers said in a joint letter. “Specifically, we believe the Commission should adopt a band plan that satisfies four principles: (1) maximize the amount of paired spectrum available for mobile broadband; (2) allow for the cost-effective and timely development of network equipment and end-user devices; (3) facilitate a single 3GPP band class to provide interoperability across all paired blocks in the 600 MHz band; and (4) allocate for supplemental downlink use any unpaired spectrum not needed to protect 600 MHz broadband operations against harmful interference."

LAS VEGAS -- Executives from T-Mobile and U.S. Cellular predicted in a discussion of the spectrum sale at the Competitive Carriers Association’s annual meeting Monday that the federal government could raise enough money to pay for FirstNet before the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum even gets under way as early as next year.

The federal government needs to do a “bona fide audit” of its spectrum holdings, said former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, a Hudson Institute visiting fellow, Monday at a Hudson event. The White House and Congress need to “make it a priority to have there be a transparent -- as transparent as possible -- but meaningful audit of federal spectrum, and then move on to implement policies that would promote the auction of exclusive-use licenses,” McDowell said. The federal government’s use of its spectrum holdings in the 1755-1780 MHz band has been an ongoing debate as federal agencies seek to clear government users from swaths of the band to allow commercial use. Federal users need to be given an incentive to move off the band, but the process remains “opaque,” McDowell said. “I know a lot of federal spectrum is used for very important purposes, but I think we can all assume that not all of that spectrum is being used efficiently -- or sometimes not at all -- and that there would be a greater societal and economic benefit were it auctioned.” Troubles also lie ahead for the desired pairing of the 1755 band with the 2155-2180 MHz band in an AWS-3 spectrum auction, he said.

VTel Wireless urged the FCC to offer 600 MHz spectrum in the incentive auction in the small, Cellular Market Area-sized chunks that are most useful to small carriers. VTel is deploying a 3G network in rural parts of New York State and Vermont, the company said. “The auction of the 600 MHz band presents an excellent opportunity for the Commission to further promote wireless broadband deployment, particularly in rural areas where next generation wireless services are often lacking,” the carrier said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/17RVw0S). “But for the goal of increased rural broadband deployment to be realized, the Commission should license the 600 MHz band on the basis of CMAs. CMAs represent the most manageable geographic area for small carriers, which are the entities most committed to serving rural America.”

Dish Network urged the FCC to adopt the broadcast incentive auction band plan originally proposed by the FCC, with the modifications Dish previously identified. The commission should reject claims that routine technical concepts like intermodulation and harmonics “should justify limiting the amount of valuable low-band spectrum for auction,” it said in an ex parte filing in dockets 12-268 and 12-357 (http://bit.ly/14eoMML). Neither intermodulation nor harmonics has served as a basis for limiting the amount of spectrum available “to provide broadband or cellular service and should not now be a basis to limit the availability of low-band spectrum in the 600 MHz auction,” it said. Dish also reiterated support for a holistic approach to the upcoming spectrum auctions of the H block, 600 MHz spectrum and AWS-3 bands. Given the current regulatory requirements for H block and AWS-4, “it is unlikely Dish will choose to meaningfully participate in the upcoming auction of the H block,” Dish said. The filing recounted a meeting with Commissioner Ajit Pai and his staff.

Verizon Wireless executives questioned the logic of placing restrictions on bidding by any carrier in the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum in a meeting with FCC staff, including Gary Epstein, head of the Incentive Auction Task Force (http://bit.ly/1dXfQCq). “We noted that proposals to restrict Verizon’s and AT&T’s ability to participate in the Incentive Auction lack a factual foundation,” the carrier said in the ex parte filing. “For example, firms advocating bidding restrictions for Verizon and AT&T provide no evidence that they would be unable to acquire 600 MHz spectrum in the auction in the absence of such restrictions. Nor do they assert that they have been unable to acquire the spectrum they need in other auctions or in the secondary market.” Restrictions would also “artificially constrain demand,” the Verizon representatives said. “This, in turn, would prevent prices from rising to the levels they would under real demand conditions in an open bidding process.”

The FCC’s efforts to create an “E-rate 2.0” will give students “the opportunity to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter who they are, where they live, or where they go to school,” said FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Monday at a Senate Communications Subcommittee field hearing in Little Rock, Ark. “We need to protect what we have already done, build on it, and put this program on a course to provide higher speeds and greater opportunities in the days ahead,” she said. The hearing was meant to examine ways to improve broadband, wireless and wireline communications in Arkansas (CD Aug 16 p12). Rosenworcel and Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., were also expected to discuss the importance of affordable Internet access in schools during a meeting later Monday with Cabot, Ark., public school officials. The FCC issued an NPRM on E-rate reforms last month (CD July 22 p1). E-rate 2.0 “must be built on clear capacity goals,” with a requirement that every school have access to 100 Mbps per 1,000 students by the 2015 school year and 1 Gbps per 1,000 students by the end of the decade, Rosenworcel said. Libraries should have capacity on-par with the school capacity requirements, she said. The FCC should phase down the $600 million it spends on “outdated services” like paging and use those funds to fund additional high-capacity broadband, Rosenworcel said. The FCC also needs to simplify the E-rate application process based on input from stakeholders, Rosenworcel said. The NPRM seeks input on whether multi-year applications are feasible, and seeks ways to encourage more use of consortia applications, she said. Verizon has “invested in Arkansas,” including a Verizon Foundation-provided $50,000 grant to the Cotter, Ark., school district to support adapting broadband to support science, technology, engineering and math education, said David Russell, Verizon vice president-external affairs for its South region. AT&T has invested $480 million in Arkansas over the last four years, and is continuing to “build out and deliver these state-of-the-art, cutting-edge broadband technologies to Arkansas customers,” said AT&T Arkansas President Edward Drilling. Representatives from Comcast, Cox Communications and Suddenlink all said they have partnered in Connect2Compete, a program that offers low-cost Internet access to the families of children who participate in the Free School Lunch Program. Comcast’s Internet Essentials broadband adoption program has helped connect 750 eligible Arkansas families to the Internet, said Mike Wilson, Comcast senior director-government affairs. Len Pitcock, Cox director-government affairs for Arkansas, said the government should “focus its efforts in Arkansas and around the country on increasing broadband adoption through existing broadband providers rather than using taxpayer dollars to fund network construction and overbuilds in areas where broadband service is already available.” Suddenlink’s investments have allowed it to increase its broadband download speeds to 50 Mbps and 107 Mbps in Arkansas, said LaDawn Fuhr, Suddenlink manager-community and government relations for the mid-South. Other FCC initiatives will also benefit communications in Arkansas, with the 600 MHz spectrum that will be made available in the FCC’s upcoming incentive auction being “well-suited for rural applications,” Rosenworcel said. “It has great propagation characteristics because it can cover vast distances with limited tower construction.” Recent FCC overhauls to the USF allowed the agency to distribute additional funds from the Connect America Fund for price cap carriers -- and the FCC “should be willing to make further changes when doing so simplifies our rules, does not break our budget, and brings better service and more investment to rural communities -- Arkansas included,” Rosenworcel said. The FCC’s Healthcare Connect Fund will aid in the development of telemedicine, which will “connect rural healthcare institutions,” she said. The Healthcare Connect Fund will allow eligible healthcare providers to apply to receive funding to cover 65 percent of the cost of broadband services or healthcare provider-owned networks.