It's difficult to gauge how the citizens broadband radio service launch has gone so far. In September, the FCC, in docket 15-319 cleared Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google and Sony to start initial commercial deployment (ICD) in the 3.5 GHz band, but the companies aren’t required to publicly report numbers. CBRS Alliance President Dave Wright of CommScope told us initial numbers are proprietary, but CBRS is moving forward as expected with full-scale launch imminent. “I continue to be extremely excited,” Wright said.
NTIA reported $98.2 million in initial estimated sharing costs in the citizens broadband radio service band, as required by law, six months before the June auction of priority access licenses. OMB reviewed the estimates, NTIA said in the report released Monday. It's sending the numbers to the House and Senate commerce committees and appropriators and the Comptroller General, NTIA said. The Defense Spectrum Organization reported $48.4 million in costs and the Navy $30.4 million. The Air Force reported $5.1 million and the Army $12 million. NTIA provided the estimates even though the FCC said in September the 3.5 GHz band isn’t subject to Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act reimbursement requirements (see 1909270059). The FCC and NTIA didn’t comment. NTIA says in a footnote the band contains “'eligible frequencies’ as described in Section 113(g)(2) of the NTIA Organization Act.”
Oil and gas producer Oxy, and subsidiary Anadarko, asked the FCC to extend until Jan. 8, 2023, licenses that fall under the citizens broadband radio service transition. The licenses cover leases in New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Colorado and elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. That date is when its last license expires, Oxy filed in docket 18-353. The companies “rely heavily on the 3650-3700 MHz band to provide critical monitoring and automation for oil and gas production systems,” Oxy said: “The 3650-3700 MHz networks that the Parties have operated on for the last nine years support telemetry and pipeline measurement data systems."
Commissioners approved an NPRM 5-0 on clearing 3.1-3.55 GHz, seen by some as a sleeper item with big implications. The item sparked a debate among members on whether the FCC is doing enough on mid-band spectrum. Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., sat through 90 minutes of the meeting, signaling his ongoing concerns about setting rules for an upcoming auction of the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band.
The expected January draft order establishing a C-band spectrum auction method might also lay out an incentive payment scheme for the spectrum's stakeholders, such as satellite and earth station operators, said wireless and industry experts and watchers Tuesday evening at an FCBA CLE. But the FCC incentive regime the agency lays out might not be the final word. The chairman's office didn't comment Wednesday.
On the cusp of an expected boom, commercial space sector worries range from a space business "bubble" to outdated rules regimes that require replacing and the need to show investors regulatory burdens are waning, said corporate and government space executives Tuesday at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the agency is committed to matching the tempo of the commercial satellite industry and avoiding a "Byzantine approval system" that could be a regulatory bottleneck. He remains concerned about prospects for orbital debris. His prepared remarks were later posted.
WTA said it supports a request last year by the Wireless ISP Association and the Utilities Technology Council that the FCC waive requirements that 3650-3700 MHz licensees complete the transition to Part 96 citizens broadband radio service rules by April 17 (see 1812040002). “WTA did not participate during the earlier stages of this proceeding, but has recently become aware that some of its members have been using the … band to provide fixed wireless broadband service to significant numbers of their rural customers and that these members are not going to be able to conform their operations to the Part 96 CBRS rules” by the deadline, said a filing in docket 18-353, posted Tuesday.
The FCC may have to backtrack on proposed rules for the citizens broadband radio service band after getting essentially no support in the record for cellular market area-level bidding in June’s auction of priority access licenses (PALs). Only T-Mobile backed CMA-level bidding but not using the FCC-proposed scheme (see 1911130056). Commissioners approved a notice in September that proposes to allow bidding on a CMA-level basis, rather than just by counties, in the top 172 CMAs. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks voted for the notice, though with reservations on CMA-level bidding (see 1909260040).
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai will circulate an order seeking approval of a public auction of 280 MHz of C-band spectrum in 2020, for a vote early in the new year, FCC officials said Monday. The order won't be on the agenda for the Dec. 12 commissioners’ meeting. The decision is considered a huge loss for the C-Band Alliance, which pressed for a private auction (see 1911150046). President Donald Trump called Pai Oct. 30 to find out more about the C band but didn’t express a view the FCC should hold a public auction, FCC officials said. Pai unveiled the decision in a letter Monday to leaders in Congress.
Virtually every commenter opposes cellular market area-level bidding in next June’s auction of priority access licenses in the citizens broadband radio service band (see 1910290046), Verizon told the FCC on bidding rules. Replies were posted through Wednesday in docket 19-244. “CMA-level bidding is not package bidding and would reduce bidder flexibility, while adding unnecessary complexity to an already-complex auction,” Verizon said. Verizon identifies T-Mobile as the lone CMA bid supporter. T-Mobile fired back, urging instead that the FCC allow just CMA-level bidding in the top 172 markets incorporating multiple counties and only county-level bidding in remaining areas. “That approach would: (1) eliminate the complexity of allowing both CMA-level and county-level bidding in the same area; and (2) balance concerns that CMA-level bidding may inhibit some bidders from securing licenses against the potential for interference and need for coordination the Commission identified when it decided to consider package bidding,” T-Mobile said. There's “overwhelming opposition” to CMA-level bidding, so drop that and package bidding, said the Rural Wireless Association. RWA noted 126 of the 663 counties in the 172 markets are rural “based on the Commission’s own definition.” CMA-level bidding “would produce unintended, detrimental consequences that would jeopardize the auction’s success,” NCTA said. CMA bidding “adds a bewildering level of complexity to the auction process that, by itself, eliminates any realistic possibility of auction success for smaller commercial and business enterprise entities,” the Enterprise Wireless Alliance filed: “It would undo the very compromise that the Commission achieved.” A broad group opposes CMA-level bidding “largely because the proposal will exclude all but the largest mobile wireless carriers from having access to PAL-protected spectrum wherever CMA-level bidding applies,” said the Industrial IoT Coalition.