Wireless Spectrum Auctions

The FCC is eyeing rural call completion and rural business data service (BDS) actions among others at its April 17 commissioners' meeting. A rural call completion item would set new rules seeking to improve long-distance provider monitoring of "intermediate providers" while easing reporting requirements, and seek comment on a recently enacted rural call law, blogged Chairman Ajit Pai Monday. The item combines an order and Further NPRM, said an agency official. Pai said a separate NPRM would look to offer BDS "inventive regulation" to rural telcos receiving model-based Connect America Fund broadband-oriented support.

AT&T officials discussed alternatives for “temporarily repacking the 37.6-40 GHz band" before an eventual auction of millimeter wave spectrum, said a filing in docket 14-177. In a meeting with FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Donald Stockdale, “AT&T also discussed the auction proposal it submitted previously in this docket; a clock auction, with generic, fungible spectrum blocks to be followed by an assignment phase,” the filing said. “AT&T advocated for an auction including all of the mmW bands at the earliest possible date.” The agency offered a plan for an auction of the spectrum in December (see 1712120010).

President Donald Trump signed the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986) and other tech and telecom policy provisions included in the $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (HR-1625) Friday, despite a last-minute threat to veto the measure. The Senate passed the omnibus early Friday 65-32, after behind-the-scenes "begging, pleading and cajoling" to assuage objections from Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the floor.

The Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986) and other tech and telecom policy provisions included in the $1.3 trillion FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (HR-1625) moved a step closer to enactment Thursday when the House passed the measure 256-167. House leaders released the bill's full text Wednesday evening after a deal between President Donald Trump and Capitol Hill leaders (see 1803210041 and 1803210068). Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed cloture on the spending bill late Thursday, setting up a first vote around 1 a.m. Saturday, shortly after the current continuing resolution to fund the government is set to expire. McConnell and others remained concerned Thursday that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., might move to force a brief government shutdown, as he did in February (see 1802060054 and Notebook at the end of 1802090050).

Trump administration officials' repeated citations of the national security implications of maintaining U.S. leadership in 5G innovation are a sign Congress needs to act on broader telecom policy issues that would help sustain that dominance, lawmakers and industry officials told us. The administration mentioned 5G deployment in its December national security strategy (see 1712180071 and 1712270032).

The FY 2018 omnibus spending bill contains language from the House-passed Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986), as expected. House leaders released the spending bill's text Wednesday evening. The House could vote on the measure as soon as Thursday, with a Senate vote to follow. The current continuing resolution to fund the government expires Friday.

Capitol Hill's expected Monday night release of the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill looked more uncertain at our deadline, but several lawmakers and aides said they believe the legislation will include the text of the House-passed Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization and spectrum legislative package (HR-4986). The leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees have been eyeing the omnibus as a vehicle for enacting HR-4986 since last month, before the House passed the legislation (see 1802270055, 1803010056 and 1803060046). The Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act (HR-4943/S-2383) could also be included in the omnibus (see 1803150059). The current continuing resolution to fund the government expires Friday. Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and other lawmakers separately told reporters they were hopeful but not certain the omnibus text would be finalized Monday night amid disagreements on several issues. Thune told reporters he is confident HR-4986 would be in the omnibus but "nobody knows until you see it." There was still "a whole bunch of stuff" under negotiation at our deadline, Thune said. Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., whose subcommittee has jurisdiction over the FCC budget, told reporters she is "very confident" that spectrum provisions included in HR-4986 are in the omnibus but "in terms of FCC reauthorization, I don't have a definite answer on that." HR-4986 includes language from the Viewer Protection Act (HR-3347) to authorize additional repack funding (see 1803080049) and from the Spectrum Auction Deposits Act (HR-4109) that would let the FCC place bidders' deposits for future spectrum auctions in a Treasury Department fund. It also includes a revised version of language from the Senate-passed Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless (Mobile Now) Act (S-19) spectrum bill (see 1803020027 and 1803060046). "We're still optimistic” that HR-4986 will be included in the omnibus, but “anything can happen” since negotiations were continuing Monday on several items in the larger spending package, one aide told us. It’s unlikely that last-minute misgivings voiced by Public Knowledge and others (see 1803160059) about language drawn from the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (HR-599/S-174) would endanger HR-4986’s prospects of being included in the spending bill, another aide said. The House passed HR-599 in early 2017. The Senate approved S-174 and other telecom-related bills in August as part of a deal to confirm Commissioners Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel (see 1708030060). The legislative language from S-174 would consolidate several FCC reports into a single biennial “Communications Marketplace Report.” Congressional Democratic leaders have backed consolidated reporting, with previous versions of HR-599/S-174 passing “unanimously” out of the House and Senate several times, so “it’s a little late in the game” for PK and others to object to the provisions now, an aide said.

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., urged the FCC Wednesday to reconsider approval earlier this year of the transfer of 39 GHz licenses from FiberTower to AT&T and high-frequency spectrum licenses from Straight Path to Verizon (see 1801180046 and 1802080055). Wireless Bureau decisions approving the deals “awarded investors in Straight Path and FiberTower multi-billion dollar windfalls at the expense of taxpayers,” Eshoo said in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. She questioned the deals' timing and is concerned they could distort a planned November auction of 28 GHz band spectrum since the Straight Path deal would mean Verizon would already have a major presence on the band. The FCC should rescind the bureau-level decisions, reclaim the previously-canceled Straight Path and FiberTower licenses “as the FCC's rules require, and conduct a timely assignment of this spectrum and the other available millimeter bands,” Eshoo said. “Spectrum assignments should be neutral, transparent and efficient, and the current Bureau-level decisions are none of these things." Straight Path and Verizon paid a $600 million civil penalty in February in connection with a 2017 settlement to end an Enforcement Bureau investigation into Straight Path's failure to use its spectrum in violation of buildout and discontinuance rules (see 1701120046 and 1802280039). Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry said it's an “understatement” to say the bureau's “decisions are not in the public interest” since they “reward Straight Path and FiberTower with multi-billion-dollar windfalls for not building out spectrum and provide Verizon and AT&T a first-mover advantage in coveted 5G spectrum at the expense of American taxpayers.” CCA petitioned for an FCC review and stay of its AT&T/FiberTower decision. All stakeholders would “benefit from an auction of the valuable high-band spectrum, as opposed to going down the path of further spectrum consolidation by already dominant wireless incumbents,” Berry said in a statement. The spectrum deals "will allow high-band spectrum licenses to be put to productive use, facilitate the prompt deployment of next-generation wireless services and thus help [the U.S.] lead the world in 5G," emailed an FCC spokeswoman. "Moreover, the consent decree that allowed Straight Path to sell its licenses rather than return them to the Commission was signed" during former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's administration "and no Commissioner objected to it. So any attempt to turn this into a partisan issue is utterly baseless."

T-Mobile agreed to help accelerate the repacking of KXAS-TV (NBC) Fort Worth to more quickly have access to 600 MHz spectrum bought in the incentive auction, the carrier said Wednesday. KXAS will move to its new frequency in late May, more than a year earlier than its FCC repacking deadline of June 21, 2019, it said. “This agreement also enables T-Mobile to enhance LTE coverage and capacity in the area more quickly.” The deal will let T-Mobile accelerate improved wireless service to the Texas cities of Paris, Sulphur Springs, Tyler, Waco and Wichita Falls, plus Durant, Oklahoma, the company said.

A Tuesday Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on broadband provisions in President Donald Trump's infrastructure legislative proposal discussed how the plan would deal with streamlining broadband-related regulations and funding to encourage deployments. Senators reserved their strongest criticisms for the state of connectivity data collection and mapping. All three issues were among those expected to be covered (see 1803120054). Secretaries of Transportation Elaine Chao, Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Commerce Wilbur Ross are among those expected to testify at a Wednesday Senate Commerce Committee hearing that also could involve broadband provisions in Trump's plan.