Further High-Band Spectrum for Mobile Moves Seen Coming Early Next Year After 4-1 NPRM Vote

The FCC, having made 1,700 MHz additional high-band spectrum available for mobile use Thursday, plans to initiate a third spectrum frontiers proceeding in the first half of 2018 that will look at the 23, 42 and 50 GHz bands and tee up the 26 GHz band, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said as commissioners approved 4-1 the latest spectrum frontiers NPRM and Further NPRM. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the agency needs to speed up the path for 5G implementation and laid out a five-point plan: “We are simply not moving fast enough."

Chairman Ajit Pai said he would like to see a high-band spectrum auction next year, but that can't happen until Congress fixes the upfront payment system. In the interim, the agency will study other bands for potential wireless use, Pai said: "However mobile consumes the world, spectrum will not be the limiting factor." A legislative fix to the upfront payment system is in the draft FCC Reauthorization Act cleared by the House Communications Subcommittee last month (see 1710110070).

Rosenworcel said the agency has now authorized mobile use in the 24, 28, 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands and teed up mobile use in the 32, 42 and 50 GHz bands, but "we need ... more than a blitz of spectrum opportunities." Instead, deadlines are needed for activity, such as committing to a 28 GHz auction before October, when South Korea is scheduled to do one. She said the agency needs to move on its mid-band spectrum review and at the same time "correct course" and move on ideas in the original 3.5 GHz band proposal. She said the agency "mistakenly" reopened it for rulemaking.

The commission also should affirm its commitment to unlicensed use in the 64-71 GHz band and dismiss petitions seeking exclusive use of the 37 GHz band, Rosenworcel said. It should try to make tower siting practices consistent nationwide -- not necessarily through pre-emption but dissemination of a model code for small-cell deployment. She said the regulator needs to promote its new experimental licensing system, particularly the use of innovation zones as "a virtual wireless sandbox" for experimentation.

Other commissioners voted aye, but Commissioner Mignon Clyburn partially dissented, criticizing the agency for rejecting the pre-auction spectrum aggregation limits in the 24 and 47 GHz bands it employed in the 2016 spectrum frontiers order. Clyburn said without those limits, large wireless companies will have incentives to acquire dominant holdings in the mid-band as they did with low-band spectrum. Clyburn also criticized the agency for eschewing a use-or-share approach for the 37 GHz band, saying that approach was backed by a variety of industry groups but the lack of use/share approach shows the majority "will take whatever steps are necessary" to accommodate large wireless providers' wants.

“It’s ironic that the FCC majority has failed to embrace the future in an order about Spectrum Frontiers," New America Wireless Future Program Director Michael Calabrese said, calling the order "the same old industrial policy crafted to ensure that spectrum access is limited to a few big national carriers and chokes off valuable competition and innovation." He criticized the agency as misrepresenting the record to justify not adopting a use/share rule.

O'Rielly backed eliminating the pre-auction limits set in the previous spectrum frontiers proceeding.

The spectrum frontiers vote keeps the agency's ​"carefully crafted consensus approach for sharing high-band spectrum between the licensed mobile and satellite industries," CTIA Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann blogged. CTIA said as other nations make spectrum available for mobile wireless, "the FCC should keep its foot on the gas" with more low-, mid- and high-band spectrum available and with an auction next year on previously allocated bands. Charter Communications said it's testing millimeter wave frequency use and how it could be employed in its wireless service, and it hopes to see spectrum licensing rules that facilitate new wireless entrants.

Satellite operators lobbied for a variety of changes to the draft item (see 1711090031). The agency said some such adjustments -- but not all -- were made to give satellite operators more flexibility. It didn't elaborate. The final item wasn't released. The Satellite Industry Association said with latest spectrum frontiers order maintaining the 40-42 GHz and 48.2-50.2 GHz bands for satellite use and giving operators more flexibility for Earth station siting, it's "initially pleased and commends the FCC’s for addressing some of the significant concerns of the satellite industry."