CBRS

With 3.5 GHz band commercial use rolling out nationwide, focus on clearing the 3.45-3.55 GHz band and studying possibly clearing at least some of 3.1-3.45 GHz or a sharing model like what's being used for the citizens broadband radio service (CBRS), FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said Wednesday. At an event cheering that initial commercial deployment, O'Rielly hoped DOD follows through on the idea it floated of increasing the allowable power levels for the band. Pentagon spectrum chief Fred Moorefield said the department would be amenable to exploring that once it's "comfortable with the rollout. ... More spectrum sharing is the new normal."

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Competitive Carriers Association members were asked by the federal government to participate in discussions on supply chain security, carrier officials said Tuesday at CCA’s annual meeting. At the opening breakfast, big issues were 5G and what it will mean to competitive carriers. Huawei was at CCA and had a technical presentation on cybersecurity.

The FCC cleared spectrum access system administrators for the 3.5 GHz band, operated by Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google and Sony. The SAS administrators “have satisfied the Commission’s SAS laboratory testing requirements and are approved to begin their initial commercial deployments,” said a Monday order in docket 15-319, by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology. A Citizens Broadband Radio Service Alliance event Wednesday marks launch of services in the band (see 1908210052).

The FCC will start the long-awaited 3.5 GHz auction June 25, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Wednesday in a blog on the agenda for the Sept. 25 commissioners’ meeting. The FCC will also take up USF funding for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands (see 1909040028), a proposal to update intercarrier compensation rules and a media modernization Further NPRM, among other items.

Huawei had “limited involvement” in the Wireless Innovation Forum Spectrum Sharing Committee's work developing the spectrum access system (SAS) and environmental sensing capability (ESC) technologies for sharing the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told seven senators in letters posted Thursday. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and five others wrote Pai and then-acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan in June about their concerns (see 1906060015). The company is under scrutiny from lawmakers worried it could affect security of 5G technology (see 1905230066). Blackburn and others eye legislation to prevent President Donald Trump's administration from lifting Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security restrictions on Huawei (see 1907220053). The company's involvement in the WinnForum work has effectively ceased because “its membership was suspended on May 21,” Pai wrote. “I have also been informed that Huawei has not had access to any materials regarding military operations, including those of the Navy, beyond what has been made publicly available.” The WinnForum aims “to establish and maintain a secure technological platform that allows users of CBRS spectrum to identify with precision and share as appropriate access to this scarce public resource,” Pai said. “Doing so effectively and efficiently will speed deployment of services, particularly those involving 5G.”

After years of work, the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band appears ready to open for business, as early as next month, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told us. O’Rielly predicted an FCC decision soon on the C band, and said the agency may not need to review CBS' buy of Viacom. O’Rielly insisted relations have improved among commissioners.

The citizens broadband radio service band moved another step closer to opening. NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences released final test reports to companies that participated in testing on sharing the 3.5 GHz band. “The completed tests will drive progress toward initial commercial deployments in the band, prized for its excellent mix of capacity and coverage capabilities,” blogged Keith Gremban, director of the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences. “With 4G LTE technology for the band available today, industry has already begun to develop specifications to support 5G deployments.” The FCC plans to use the reports to certify that the spectrum access systems are complying with its rules, Gremban said Friday. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly predicts the band will likely be the first mid-band spectrum to come online for 5G (see 1904300208).

Microsoft and Verizon received FCC experimental licenses to do tests in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Microsoft plans tests at its campus in Redmond, Washington. Verizon said it plans “a series of field tests” using BDRS devices at different locations. “Field tests will be conducted in a production network, in a highly controlled field environment, in order to assist in the development of commercial products,” the carrier said: “The testing will benefit the public interest by enabling the pre-commercial testing of new products outside of a lab environment but in a controlled and managed manner.”

Intel sought FCC permission to test communications in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band at an Intel campus in Chandler, Arizona. Intel plans to use equipment by Ruckus Wireless and asked for a year-long experimental license.

Debate over the best plan for clearing spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band is expected to be the big draw for stakeholders during the House Communications Subcommittee's Tuesday hearing on spectrum policy issues. It won't be the only focus. Six other bands are known to be on subcommittee members' radar amid ongoing Capitol Hill interest in U.S. strategy for taking a lead role in 5G development, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. The panel is set to start at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn (see 1907100069).