CBRS

The Wireless ISP Association asked the FCC to auction the upper 40 MHz of the 3.45 GHz band by county, rather than by partial economic area, in calls with aides to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington. Other groups also sought smaller license sizes (see 2103040061). WISPA would leave the remaining 60 GHz to be sold as PEAs. “Using county-based licenses for the upper 40-megahertz will promote greater participation in the auction by smaller providers interested in obtaining licensed mid-band spectrum for rural coverage,” WISPA said. T-Mobile urged 10 MHz rather than 20 MHz licenses and sought a simplified out-of-band emissions (OOBE) mask. Adopting citizens broadband radio service rules wouldn’t work, the carrier said. “While CBRS-style rules support lower-power operations and may have been appropriate for the 3.5 GHz band because of the need to protect incumbent radars and to address coexistence concerns, those circumstances do not apply to the 3.45 GHz band,” T-Mobile said: It wants a 40 MHz limit on buys by any bidder. New America's Open Technology Institute asked a Starks aide to model rules on those for CBRS: “CBRS is already proving that an integrated band with both licensed spectrum and shared [general authorized access], operating under common technical rules, promotes innovation, competition and more localized deployments by a wide variety of ISPs, enterprise and other institutions.” The “unique issues that led to lower power levels in the CBRS band are not present here, and allowing power levels comparable to C-band will maximize the efficient use of the 3.45-3.55 GHz band,” the Competitive Carriers Association said in a call with an aide to acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Proposed aggregation limits “will invite greater participation in the auction and promote competition by ensuring at least three licensees in each market,” CCA said. Lockheed Martin raised interference concerns for its three primary radar manufacturing and test facilities in New York and New Jersey. Filings were posted Monday in docket 19-348.

Stakeholders suggested changes to rules for a 3.45 GHz auction, in recent calls with eighth-floor FCC staff. Public Knowledge asked the agency to allow shared use of spectrum not sold in the auction. Rather than selling the licenses in a future auction, the commission should add them to the citizens broadband radio service database and “permit general authorized access (GAA) pursuant to the CBRS service rules,” PK said in calls with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. “Extend the CBRS framework on a more permanent basis into the 3.45-3.55 GHz band,” the group said: “Doing this will ensure valuable spectrum will be used without leaving GAA dependent networks stranded when licensees deploy.” Rationalize the CBRS rules with rules for 3.45 GHz, Dish Network urged: “Such an effort could provide the Commission with a win-win outcome that raises revenue for the U.S. Treasury … while preserving the investment-backed plans of the many entities that successfully participated in the CBRS auction." Offer county-sized, 10-MHz licenses, consistent with the CBRS auction, Southern Linc asked a Carr aide and staff from the Wireless Bureau, Office of Economics and Analytics and Office of Engineering and Technology. “In addition to nationwide, regional and rural service providers, the licensing framework for the CBRS band drew participation from electric utilities and other private network operators with a pressing need for spectrum to support operations that play a crucial role in the US economy,” Southern Linc said. Filings were posted Friday in docket 19-348. The FCC is unlikely to backtrack from acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s approach on the auction (see 2102240063), Cowen’s Paul Gallant told investors Friday. “Although the agency is currently split 2-2, we doubt Chairwoman Rosenworcel would have circulated it unless it was going to be adopted,” he said: “It would set C Band-like rules rather than CBRS rules that helped Comcast and Charter win 3.5 GHz spectrum last year.”

Google, NCTA and 20 others urged leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees Wednesday to address “current estimated costs to clear the 3.45 GHz band of federal users,” which “could jeopardize” FCC “ability to conduct a successful auction and meet its obligation to ensure that a wide variety of applicants have access to spectrum.” Commissioners vote March 17 on beginning an auction for early October (see 2102230065). NTIA in January estimated relocation costs “at more than $13.4 billion, meaning that the auction reserve price that bidders would have to meet in order for a successful auction would be nearly $15 billion, likely putting licenses out of reach for all but the three largest nationwide wireless operators,” stakeholders also including Comcast, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Public Knowledge, the Rural Wireless Association and Wireless ISP Association said in a letter to Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J.; and ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. “Wireless providers’ large financial commitments in the recent C-band auction and related build-out obligations make it all the more appropriate to encourage other sources of capital in a second mid-band spectrum auction in the same year.” Congress “should encourage the FCC to consider licensing policies akin to those adopted in the [citizens broadband radio service] CBRS band that could increase competition, lower costs for prospective new entrants, and better ensure that the benefits of 5G are enjoyed by all consumers,” the entities said. They want lawmakers to “work closely with NTIA, affected federal spectrum users, and the FCC to consider ways to refine and reduce the federal government’s relocation cost estimate.”

Rivada Networks withdrew an application at the FCC to be a spectrum access system administrator and environmental sensing capability operator in the citizens broadband radio service band, said a filing posted Friday in docket 15-319.

In an apparent win for carriers, acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is proposing a standard auction for the 3.45-3.55 GHz band, offering the big license sizes favored by national providers. The auction would start Oct. 5 and use an ascending clock format. The FCC also released its open radio access network notice of inquiry and public safety items for the March 17 commissioners’ meeting.

FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said 5G issues will be a focus at the March 17 commissioners’ meeting, circulating a draft order to start an auction of the 3.45-3.55 GHz band in early October (see 2102230046). She plans a notice of inquiry opening a “formal discussion” on open radio access networks, the FCC said Tuesday. Rosenworcel announced Monday commissioners will vote on rules for the $3.2 billion emergency broadband benefit program (see 2102220065).

NTIA sent a letter to the FCC Monday providing “more refined geographic parameters” for proposed cooperative planning areas (CPAs) and periodic use areas (PUAs) provided by DOD, tied to an eventual 3.45-3.55 GHz auction. NTIA urged the FCC to release rules and auction the band “as expeditiously as practical.” It's seen as a top priority under acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2102190046). The areas aren’t exclusion zones, but “military systems require protection from harmful interference from new non-federal operations, either indefinitely (in CPAs) or episodically (in PUAs), in support of national security missions and to meet readiness requirements,” NTIA wrote. More information will be released as the auction approaches, the letter said: “NTIA and DoD will provide supplemental information to potential bidders similar to the DOD AWS-3 Workbook and NTIA recommends issuing a joint Public Notice, like with AWS-3, with more details on federal notification and coordination.” NTIA reported Monday incumbent informing capability (IIC) time-based sharing holds promise for making more federal spectrum available for commercial use. The sharing system will likely be federalized, “run and administered by NTIA,” the paper said. “NTIA expects that IIC will be deployed over the next few years to support mid-band spectrum sharing predominately between federal systems and broadband wireless carriers using 4G and 5G technology,” it said: “IIC is expected to be a long-term project with iterations that will ultimately allow federal agencies to populate and update in realtime a database with frequency, location, and time-of-use information for systems they deploy.” First steps for testing in the citizens broadband radio service band in this effort are updating the previously developed CBRS portal to a DOD scheduler 11 participating test ranges “and identifying the data collection and security requirements and considerations,” NTIA said. “If successful, NTIA will next evaluate expanding IIC functionality to other 5G mid-band spectrum and ultimately transition the capability to an NTIA operation, allowing us to potentially apply IIC to all federal operations in other bands.” The letter to the FCC said IIC will play a role in 3.45 GHz.

An order establishing rules for a 3.45-3.55 GHz auction appears to be one spectrum item moving under acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. She's reluctant to plow into other bands while acting chief, but 3.5 GHz is teed up, and timing is an issue, with an auction having to take place this year, said FCC and industry officials. The big question is whether the FCC will approve a model based on the adjacent citizens broadband radio service or a more traditional licensed model.

Motorola Solutions “strongly supports” an FCC proposal to open the 3.45-3.55 GHz band for shared use. Base rules on those in the citizens broadband radio service band, the company urged in a filing posted Friday in docket 19-348: “Such opportunistic use would significantly increase overall spectrum utilization and ensure that this highly valuable spectrum resource is quickly put to use in more areas, while fully maintaining dynamic incumbent and licensee rights."

Dell’Oro Group sees a slightly less rosy outlook for the citizens broadband radio service band, forecasting $2 billion in investments between last year and 2025, said a Friday report. Fixed wireless and network capacity augmentation dominate investments, the report said. “We remain optimistic about the CBRS opportunity, but we have revised the outlook downward over the near-term to reflect the slower than expected CBRS uptake,” said Stefan Pongratz, vice president-analyst: “This downward adjustment does not change the long-term vision -- we continue to believe that there is an opportunity to improve spectrum utilization while at the same time stimulating innovation for both public and private networks across various industry segments.”