Making High-Band Spectrum Available for 5G Theme of April FCC Meeting

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the April 12 commissioners’ meeting will focus on 5G for a second straight month. It includes the public notice for the auction of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands and a plan for sharing the 37 GHz band between industry and DOD. 5G is “the next big thing in wireless,” Pai blogged. He plans votes on nixing a rural telco USF rate floor and granting part of a USTelecom forbearance petition seeking ILEC relief from certain structural-separation and reporting duties. And there's a media modernization item, among others in the pipeline (see 1903210072).

The agency is in the early days of the 24 GHz auction, its second of high-band spectrum for 5G. Bidding was at $861.4 million after the final round Thursday, round 17.

The PN “makes proposals and asks questions about the essential features” of a 37, 39 and 47 GHz auction, Pai said. “We're seeking comment on plans for a new incentive auction, in which we propose to use an ascending clock auction format for the offered licenses and then hold a sealed-bid assignment phase.” The draft proposes 100 MHz blocks of spectrum licensed by partial economic area, he said.

Pai noted the three bands free up significant amounts of spectrum. The 37 and 39 GHz bands offer 2,400 MHz and the 47 GHz band an additional 1,000 MHz, Pai said: “Combined with the two preceding auctions, the Commission will be making available almost five gigahertz of spectrum for commercial use this year.”

In a related proposal, commissioners will vote to “finalize arrangements” for the upper 37 GHz band “establishing a process” for DOD to operate there “on a shared basis in limited circumstances,” said Pai. He thanked the Pentagon for working with the FCC on the band: “The issues involved are quite complex, and I appreciate their working in good faith to reach a mutually agreeable resolution of them.”

FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said last year the 37 GHz band raises issues that are tough to solve. “The federal government is not only asking for the right to stay but also the opportunity to potentially grow their footprint,” O’Rielly said at the time (see 1807180056).

OTARD, Cable

The agency also will take up revised rules for over-the-air reception devices.

Current OTARD rules “were developed a long time ago,” Pai said. “They had in mind the delivery of video services, not broadband. So they don't apply to antennas operating as hub or relay antennas used to transmit signals to or receive signals from multiple customer locations -- in short, the kind of equipment that could be used for innovative new wireless services.” The changes will clear the way for “next-generation networking technologies that operate over millimeter waves, specifically, things like the base stations and hubs that make up mesh networks,” he said.

Commissioners also will vote on possibly eliminating the requirement cable operators maintain hard copies of their channel lineups in their local offices. It's not clear if the decision will be a 5-0, an eighth-floor official told us. Another official said the item doesn't seem likely to generate big dissents.

Pai wrote that "going to the offices of your local cable operator to get a current listing of the cable television channels it offers. ... is ridiculous," and the hard copies requirement is "equally preposterous." He said similar at a cable conference earlier Thursday. "I’m sure it’s been many years since you had someone stop by the office saying, 'Hey can you just tell us what the cable channel lineup is,’" Pai said in Q&A with America's Communications Association CEO Matthew Polka.

Wireline Votes

Pai wants "to get rid of some kinda crazy rules," starting with a rate floor requiring certain rural telco USF recipients to impose minimum local phone rates. He said it forces many rural customers to pay higher rates than some urban counterparts, without corresponding benefits. "For years, we've kicked the can down the road with piecemeal delays," he said. "If we don't take action soon, many rural Americans' rates will go up by almost 50% in July. In three weeks, we'll vote on squashing the can and ending this counterproductive regulation once and for all." He cited backing from "a diverse coalition" including AARP and the National Tribal Telecommunications Association.

"It could get interesting," said an eighth-floor official, noting that O'Rielly defended the rate floor in a 2017 statement on an order that blocked a scheduled hike. "I support the rate floor concept and I’m puzzled why everyone else doesn’t," he said then. "Contrary to all of the misinformation, the policy is built on a solid premise: the Commission -- as the steward of the contributions made by those that pay into [USF] -- expects a certain level of company revenue to be recouped from its own subscribers prior to receiving subsidies." The "policy does not mandate higher rural telephone rates," he added. "Companies are fully free to charge lower rates; the Commission -- or more accurately the hard-working citizens throughout our country -- just won’t contribute to keep rates artificially low," he said. O'Rielly's office didn't comment Thursday.

NTCA is pleased with the proposal to end the rate floor, it emailed: "If not addressed, this policy risks inflicting local voice telephony rate increases of up to nearly $9 more per month on rural consumers in just a few months. Action by the FCC at the April meeting is essential given the limited time for some carriers to provide customer notices and/or obtain state approvals for these kinds of substantial rate increases -- and, in the end, it is important that rural consumers not see such increases at all."

Pai also wants to ditch some "obsolete" regulation targeted by USTelecom. A draft order "would forbear from the burdensome rule that smaller, rural incumbent carriers offer long-distance telephone service through a separate affiliate," he said. It would relieve ILECs from a duty to file "unnecessary reports about their legacy 'special access' services and from a duplicative statutory provision regarding access to telephone poles. Without this regulatory overhang and the compliance burden that goes along with it, carriers can instead focus their resources on delivering next-generation services."

USTelecom welcomed the proposed "relief on important aspects of our petition more than four months before the statutory deadline.” Pai said the agency would address later the rest of the association's petition, which seeks relief from ILEC wholesale unbundling and resale duties.