Wireless Spectrum Auctions

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and Wireless Bureau approved the long-form applications for 600 MHz licenses bought in the broadcast incentive auction, said a public notice Tuesday. Licensees of the 75 new licenses included Spectrum Financial Partners, with 23 licenses, and Tstar 600, with 12. The agency approved the first grants of licenses bought in the auction in June (see 1706140048).

Columbia Capital’s acquisition of 16 incentive auction licenses in 11 cities from AT&T wasn’t a surprise since AT&T likely got caught buying licenses it didn’t want or need, industry officials said Monday. AT&T already had low-band spectrum from the original 700 MHz auction, and picked up access to 20 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum nationwide through its FirstNet contract. The two companies didn’t comment Monday and haven't disclosed the purchase price. AT&T bid just $910 million for 23 licenses in the auction, which ended last year (see 1704130056). AT&T filed a document at the FCC indicating it would transfer its 600 MHz holdings to LB License Company, an affiliate of Columbia Capital, an Alexandria, Virginia-based investment firm, which specializes in wireless. Earlier, Facticia reported that LB was trying to raise $928 million for undisclosed expenses. Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America tweeted “@ATT now has access to public safety spectrum nationwide (700 MHz 'D Block').” He said “600MHz was insurance, but [AT&T] has plenty of pricey low-band spectrum for coverage; will put it's [sic] focus now on lower-cost, higher-bands for capacity.”

NAB raised concerns about interference if the FCC makes technical changes to rules for the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band. Other commenters said the FCC should minimize changes to the rules approved three years ago. The FCC approved the initial 3.5 GHz NPRM in 2012 (see 1212130044), setting up an experimental three-tiered access and sharing model made up of federal and nonfederal incumbents, priority access licenses (PALs) and general authorized access users. In October, commissioners agreed to seek comment on revising the rules (see 1710240050).

AT&T proposed a plan for a high-frequency spectrum auction to consolidate spectrum holdings, especially in the 39 GHz band, one of the first set for sale. A challenge to millimeter wave bidding is that incumbents have holdings “scattered throughout the band, typically in 50 MHz chunks,” blogged Hank Hultquist, vice president-federal regulatory. “Incumbents hold different types of geographic licenses that in many cases overlay each other. In order for the auction to be successful, the FCC must find a way to reorganize the band into block sizes that are more favorable for 5G, ideally 200 MHz blocks, and maximize the number of blocks.” AT&T proposed vouchers to incumbent licensees based on number of MHz/POPs they hold. Values would be set by bidding in the allocation phase. Hultquist said Tuesday the plan puts licensees on a level playing field. “It provides an elegant solution to the mish-mash of existing holdings in a way that maximizes the value and usability of the band,” he wrote. “By guaranteeing contiguity to successful bidders, the proposal allows winning bidders to maximize the bandwidth that will ultimately be available to consumers.” FCC officials say they can hold no major spectrum auctions until Congress approves legislative language that would let auction deposits be sent directly to the Treasury Department (see 1710240065). AT&T laid out the plan in a paper filed Tuesday in docket 14-177, by economists James Bono and Allan Ingraham of Economists Inc.

Telecom policy aides for the House and Senate Commerce committees signaled optimism Friday that lawmakers can act in 2018 on legislation to encourage broadband deployment and free additional spectrum. But continued rancor means even enactment of a still-elusive compromise net neutrality bill won’t bring to an end that long-standing debate, the staffers said during a Practising Law Institute conference. Senate aides touted the August passage of several long-stalled telecom bills, including the Mobile Now Act (S-19) spectrum bill, as their top achievement of 2017. Their House colleagues noted progress on FCC reauthorization and strong oversight of telecom-related agencies (see 1708030060, 1710110070 and 1710250050). PLI also heard Friday about media policy (see 1712080062).

The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee was a good idea, but its findings inevitably will reflect who's on the group, and state and local interests are underrepresented, NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said Thursday at a Practising Law Institute conference. BDAC approved six sets of recommendations for speeding deployment of wireless and wireline infrastructure at its last meeting in November (see 1711090054). Other PLI news: 1712070063 and 1712070016.

A congressional infrastructure package isn't expected to contain broadband funding, said Grace Koh, National Economic Council technology, telecom and cybersecurity assistant to President Donald Trump. "I don't think broadband is going to be a set-aside" in legislation, though high-speed deployment could be encouraged in other ways, she said at a Practicing Law Institute conference Thursday morning. Other PLI news: 1712070063 and 1712070047.

Hughes Network Systems urged the FCC to go easy on performance-measurement duties in a planned Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of USF support for fixed broadband services in traditional ILEC areas where incumbents declined CAF II offers. Such obligations would impose burdens that fall hardest on smaller winning bidders, said the Hughes response Wednesday to a public notice in docket 10-90 (see 1711060055). The FCC should leverage existing programs, including Measuring Broadband America, but if it does impose a new requirement, it should select a "software approach where the software resides on the operators' modems," said Hughes, which earlier made broader CAF II auction arguments. Several parties lobbied FCC rural broadband auctions task force members in filings this week. The Wireless ISP Association pressed the staffers not to require potential bidders using spectrum to submit propagation maps for the census block groups they're eying. Such applicants should demonstrate due diligence in applications, but the mapping requirement "would be impractical, unfair and inefficient," said WISPA, which also criticized a proposed financial screen and backed census block groups (CBGs) as the geographic bidding unit. A rural coalition of power companies and NTCA urged the FCC to simplify the auction, arguing that procedural complexity, particularly package bidding, could deter small provider participation. But officials from USTelecom, AT&T, CenturyLink, Consolidated Communications, Frontier Communications, Verizon and Windstream defended package bidding, which they said allows participants "to plan efficient network deployment" across CBGs. They said their analysis suggests packages of up to 25 CBGs are "likely to provide sufficient opportunity to reap network build and operating efficiencies to yield bids" consistent with the FCC's goal of ensuring competitive prices and broad coverage. They also said the ability of bidders "to change performance tiers between rounds appeared to contribute more to views that the auction is unnecessarily complex than to the needs of existing broadband providers."

Telco groups pressed the FCC to shore up funding for high-cost USF support. NTCA highlighted the need to "remedy shortfalls" in support it sees as "undermining the effectiveness" of the program. The FCC should "pursue readily available paths toward helping to mitigate the insufficiency of USF support," including "the immediate use of existing program reserves" pending a further review and long-term measures, said an NTCA filing posted Wednesday in docket 10-90 on a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. The group said its May 2016 petition for reconsideration provided a vehicle for near-term relief. USTelecom backed "both long-term and short-term solutions" to ensure support is adequate. Insufficient funding affected "broadband providers' ability to build out fiber to rural areas," said its filing on a meeting with an aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Seven Tennessee rural telcos receiving USF support through an Alternative Connect America Model urged the FCC to act by year-end to "authorize additional A-CAM funding up to $200/month per eligible customer location to enable more rural consumers in Tennessee to have the broadband connectivity necessary for jobs, education, healthcare, and economic development," said a filing. Some parties lobbied on the planned Connect America Fund Phase II reverse auction of support for fixed services, including a rural coalition of electric cooperatives, NTCA, the Utilities Technology Council and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. They urged the FCC to reject advocacy that "would reduce accountability and potentially undermine an efficient and fair auction process by delaying (or preventing entirely) the Commission’s review of information essential to confirming the technical and financial qualifications" of bidders. They disputed opposition to the coalition's proposal that wireless parties be required to provide spectrum propagation maps of their planned coverage areas in short-form applications. The American Cable Association urged the FCC to use census blocks, not census block groups as proposed, as the minimum geographic bidding unit. "[A]lthough many census blocks may be economically viable, the census block groups -- in which these blocks are found -- often are not," said an ACA filing on a meeting with agency auctions task force staff. "This is because these groups include extremely high-cost census blocks, whose reserve price is capped at an amount often far below what a bidder would need to meet its deployment obligations."

T-Mobile supports a request by broadcasters in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands for permission to repack stations early (see 1711150038), the carrier said in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 12-268. Allowing an early transition of the TV stations affected by recent storms in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands “has real, practical benefits for broadcasters and, in turn, will benefit the overall transition plan and enable rapid deployment of new wireless service,” T-Mobile said. T-Mobile has emphasized its plans to take possession of spectrum purchased in the broadcast incentive auction as soon as possible, and previously has entered into agreements with public TV stations and low-power outlets to facilitate their repacking efforts (see 1707170043). “An early repack would prompt broadcasters to take advantage of this interim operations period to rebuild once, rather than require a rebuild of current facilities only to be built again in less than two years’ time,” T-Mobile said.