C-Band Debate to Be Big Issue at House Communications' Spectrum Hearing

Debate over the best plan for clearing spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band is expected to be the big draw for stakeholders during the House Communications Subcommittee's Tuesday hearing on spectrum policy issues. It won't be the only focus. Six other bands are known to be on subcommittee members' radar amid ongoing Capitol Hill interest in U.S. strategy for taking a lead role in 5G development, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. The panel is set to start at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn (see 1907100069).

It won’t be “exclusively a C-band hearing, although I’m sure C-band will be part” of the discussion, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., told reporters. Recent comments in FCC docket 18-122 show consensus on legal authority for a particular method of clearing the band remains elusive (see 1907050035). Doyle’s office later confirmed he’s in “early stages” of seeking feedback on draft C-band legislation that “frees up spectrum” for commercial 5G use, “protects incumbent users, and raises money that can be used to deploy broadband in rural America.”

Doyle’s draft bill aims to approach C-band reallocation via a “hybrid” approach, with 400 megahertz of spectrum on the band repurposed in four phases over a 10-year period, said communications sector lobbyists. Most of the spectrum would be reallocated during the first five years, with an initial FCC-led auction coming by 2022, the lobbyists said. C-band satellite incumbents would receive as-yet-unspecified “incentive” payments for the spectrum plus reimbursement of reallocation costs, similar to what occurred in the broadcast incentive auction, lobbyists said.

The Doyle proposal is distinct from the draft Wireless Investment Now in (Win) 5G Act being floated by House Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., telecom lobbyists said. That proposal would set up a tiered system for satellite companies to benefit from an FCC-led C-band auction in which freeing additional spectrum would increase satellite companies’ share, up to 100 percent if they clear all 500 MHz (see 1906260078). The Doyle draft is separate from his draft revised version of his Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (Airwaves) Act, lobbyists said. That bill, filed last Congress, aims to identify spectrum for unlicensed use and free up mid-band spectrum for wireless industry purchase via an FCC auction (see 1802070054).

“One of the big questions” heading into the hearing is “to what extent the Hill gets involved” in the C-band debate via filed legislation, said Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Broadband and Spectrum Policy Director Doug Brake. Questions from Doyle and others will be an “indicator” of what’s to come in filed bills or if the C-band debate ends up being a policy area in which “complicated engineering and economic tradeoffs point toward a better solution” originating from the FCC.

The airwaves swath will definitely “be a hot topic,” but lawmakers are unlikely to go deep into the weeds, said Public Knowledge Policy Director Phillip Berenbroick. “I think the conversation will likely focus on the public auction v. private sale” debate, “how much money from repurposing that spectrum should go toward [the Treasury Department] and be earmarked for broadband deployment in rural areas” and the timeline for bringing the spectrum to market. “There might be a food fight over whether [the C-Band Alliance’s] proposal is fastest,” he said. “That’s why you see” FCC commissioners from both parties saying “Congress should weigh in.”

FCC-Commerce Flap

Doyle told us he expects lawmakers to have questions about U.S. spectrum strategy, particularly for NTIA Senior Policy Adviser Derek Khlopin and FCC Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp. There are concerns about hindrances to developing the federal government’s 5G strategy in light of NOAA concerns about potential effects of commercial use of spectrum on the 24 GHz band sold in the recent FCC auction on weather forecasting technology (see 1905230037). Quarreling between the FCC and Department of Commerce led to a White House-led spectrum policy meeting last week that included FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and Commerce's Earl Comstock, industry officials and lobbyists said.

“We want to hear from all these different agencies … that don’t want to give up their spectrum,” Doyle said. He also noted interest in discussing other broader spectrum topics, including FCC work on spectrum like the 2.5 GHz educational broadcast service band order (see 1907100054) and the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band.

Others on the Hill continue to be interested in the FCC-Department of Commerce row.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us he’s continuing to “look at ways to accommodate” concerns that ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., raised about 24 GHz interference. “That’s certainly something that I’m going to look at,” though Senate Commerce has a booked hearings schedule before the August recess, Wicker said. The issue was already “thoroughly discussed” during a recent FCC oversight hearing, “more so that I thought it would be.”

Cantwell and Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., separately told us they remain engaged on the issue. Johnson wrote Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross in late June about whether Commerce is actively hindering the government’s 5G strategy development (see 1906240063).

Testimony

Knapp didn’t mention the FCC-Commerce flap in his written testimony but did highlight the commission’s success in completing auctions of the 24 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum that precipitated NOAA’s concerns. He says the FCC “works with other organizations across government, including the State Department, NTIA, and other federal agencies in developing U.S. positions” for the WRC. “Our goal is to ensure that the United States’ interests are well-represented and that consumers across our country can ultimately benefit from the innovation that wise spectrum policies enable,” Knapp said. Khlopin’s written testimony wasn’t available Monday.

CTIA Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann urges lawmakers to be “skeptical of 11th hour attempts to deny access to [the 24 GHz] band, which would impact not just the [band], but potentially all of our 5G high-band spectrum. As the U.S. government prepares for the upcoming [WRC], the overarching goal should be to ensure that our efforts are directed at promoting rapid 5G deployment across the U.S.” Congress should “encourage the Administration to ensure that its positions reinforce our 5G leadership and do not undermine access to critical spectrum bands that have already been identified for 5G use in the U.S.,” Bergmann says.

CBA Executive Vice President-Advocacy and Government Relations Peter Pitsch and some other private sector officials focus on the C band. CBA’s proposal “represents the fastest way to repurpose C-band spectrum for terrestrial mobile services while also protecting existing satellite operations,” Pitsch says.

Competitive Carriers Association Senior Vice President-Legislative Affairs Tim Donovan highlighted the “compromise” proposal the group filed with America’s Communications Association and Charter (see 1907020061), in which “video programmers and [MVPDs] would transition from satellite connections to fiber connections, using some of the proceeds of the auction to fund the transition.” The CBA proposal “would only allocate 180 megahertz for wireless use,” Donovan says.

New America’s Open Technology Institute believes “a reallocation of C-band has the potential to ensure that all 500 megahertz of today’s grossly underutilized C-band is put to work to fuel America’s 5G future and to close the rural broadband divide,” says Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese. But “public interest groups, rural wireless ISPs, the cable industry and other stakeholders” remain concerned that the FCC “continues to consider proposals for a ‘private auction’ that would violate the Communications Act and needlessly transfer many billions of dollars in public assets to four foreign satellite companies that never paid for the public airwaves they use."

APCO Chief Counsel Jeffrey Cohen focuses on public safety concerns about allowing unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band and urged Congress to let public safety keep the T-band (see 1906210050). “Bands housing public safety operations are not the appropriate arena to deploy new, unproven spectrum sharing and frequency coordination methods,” Cohen says. “Considering the introduction of unlicensed uses into a public safety band warrants increased scrutiny.”