Pai Wants to Schedule High-Frequency Spectrum Auction; NTIA to Study 3450-3550 MHz Band

Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC hopes to hold an auction of the 28 GHz band in November, followed immediately by a 24 GHz auction. But Pai, at the Mobile World Congress, Monday, said doing so relies on Congress passing legislation by May 13 giving the agency the ability to handle upfront payments. On a third band, NTIA Administrator David Redl said Monday his agency will study the 3450-3550 MHz band for wireless broadband. It sits just below the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service frequencies, a focus of the commission.

Pai declined to say during a news conference last week when the upfront payment issue would damage the FCC’s ability to move forward on its 5G agenda. “Until now, this technical issue hasn’t impeded the FCC’s work because we’ve been busy getting spectrum we’ve already allocated ready to be auctioned,” he said at the MWC in Barcelona. “But we’re now ready to move forward with a major spectrum auction, and if we don’t get the problem fixed by May 13, our efforts to realize America’s 5G future will be delayed.” May is six months before November and it usually has taken that long for the FCC to get rules finalized before holding an auction.

Pai’s proposal is “yet another reason to enact” the Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services (Ray Baum's) Act FCC reauthorization bill (HR-4986), said House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “The race to 5G is a sprint, not a marathon, and the proposed spectrum auctions will help ensure the United States remains at the forefront of this emerging technology.” HR-4986, which House Commerce cleared earlier this month (see 1802140064), includes language from the Spectrum Auction Deposits Act (HR-4109) that would allow the FCC to place bidders' deposits in future spectrum auctions in a Treasury Department fund (see 1710250026). The lawmakers said they “are continuing to work with all parties to get this important legislation to the finish line.”

There’s no reason to believe the House won’t be able to easily pass HR-4986 given the bipartisan agreement among House Commerce members on the bill’s current language, so the feasibility of congressional action on the measure in time for Pai to hold a November auction really “depends on what the Senate does” with the legislation, a House GOP aide said: “We’re doing our part.” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., expressed interest in taking up FCC reauthorization legislation this year that will be similar to the language in the Senate Commerce-cleared 2016 FCC Reauthorization Act (see 1604270055), which included a provision on upfront auction deposits. House Commerce can always move to advance HR-4109 as a stand-alone bill if it appears likely the Senate won’t be able to swiftly consider HR-4986, but lawmakers will “cross that bridge when we come to it,” the House aide said.

Senate Commerce supports Pai's "call to action and will continue working with our" House colleagues "to authorize FCC collection of upfront payments," a spokesman said. “To lead in 5G, we need action,” said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who has urged Pai to schedule additional auctions (see 1802220048). “I am pleased that the FCC has heeded my call and will be holding an auction of 28 GHz spectrum later this year.”

Redl said use of the 3450-3550 MHz band depends on the ability of the DOD to find another location for military radar systems that operate there. Mid-band spectrum has been a key focus of carriers as they start to deploy 5G.

“DOD plans to submit a proposal under the Spectrum Pipeline Act to carry out a comprehensive radio-frequency engineering study to determine the potential for introducing advanced wireless services in this band without harming critical government operations,” Redl blogged. “We hope the result of this hard work will be a ‘win-win,’ enabling the continuing growth of the U.S. wireless industry while protecting radars that are vital for national security.”

Reaction

“I've been clear that we can and must reallocate a good portion of 3.1 to 3.55 gigahertz for commercial wireless purposes,” said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. The NTIA announcement is “great news,” Pai said. “Altogether, this could unleash a contiguous block of hundreds of megahertz of valuable spectrum for new technologies and services, including 5G.”

CTIA will “work with the FCC, Congress and other stakeholders to ensure the auction timeline is met,” said President Meredith Baker. “The wireless industry needs the certainty of a spectrum pipeline, and Chairman Pai’s commitment is a critical next step.” Baker backed DOD and the administration “seeking out win-win opportunities” in the 3450-3550 MHz band and agreeing to “work cooperatively to ensure critical national security objectives are protected while unlocking new spectrum for commercial use.”

“Carriers need a vast spectrum portfolio to be at the forefront of next-generation and 5G technologies, including low-, mid-, and high-band resources,” the Competitive Carriers Association said.

Industry lawyers said finding a way for the DOD to accommodate industry could be challenging. NTIA earlier reported on the larger 3000-3500 MHz band, saying it contained “various types of shipborne, land-based, and aeronautical mobile radar systems for national defense purposes.”

Overdue Step

Redl’s announcement “is another major and overdue step forward for sharing lightly used federal bands with the private sector,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “Most of the military’s use of this band is for ship-based or for land-based systems in fixed locations that operate intermittently, such as Army test ranges. For that reason, I am optimistic that NTIA’s study will conclude that the geolocation database and coastal sensing systems being deployed to dynamically share the 3550-3700 MHz band with the Navy can also facilitate shared use of this very valuable and adjacent band.”

“With the conclusion of last year’s incentive auction, there has been an interruption in the flow of the spectrum pipeline,” said Robert McDowell, senior policy adviser to Mobile Future. “The win-win spirit behind NTIA’s action is excellent. Hopefully, positive and constructive leadership like this will lead to more spectrum being placed into consumers’ hands sooner rather than later.”

DOD needs to work with NTIA “in a very thoughtful and strategic way to find new spectrum for commercial uses,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge. “Even when it involves challenges such as migrating military radar systems, it's important to try to build on existing commercial allocations rather than create a patchwork of bands that interleave federal and commercial users in ways that prevent either from using the spectrum efficiently.”

Pai also said at MWC he will propose in the next few months “the next steps needed to make the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz band available for commercial terrestrial use.” The FCC also will make more spectrum available for unlicensed use, he said. Pai stressed the importance of light-handed regulation to 5G: “America’s Internet economy became the envy of the world thanks to a market-based approach that began in the mid-1990s.”