FCC Expected to OK 900 MHz Order 5-0 With Few Changes

The FCC’s 900 MHz order, set for a vote Wednesday, is expected to be approved with the full support of commissioners and few changes, if any, agency and industry officials said. The order would reallocate a 6 MHz swath to broadband while keeping 4 MHz for narrowband. The commissioners’ meeting will be brief, with items approved beforehand and no oral statements, the agency announced Wednesday evening.

There will be written statements on the 900 MHz order, FCC officials said. Most statements on the item are expected to reference the importance of broadband due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Stakeholders have lobbied the FCC since the order circulated to seek changes, many minor (see 2005010038). Staff overseeing the order opposes anything but tweaks to the language, FCC and industry officials said. Commissioners approved an NPRM on the band in March 2019 5-0 (see 1903130062).

"We appreciate the commission's action," Enterprise Wireless Alliance President Mark Crosby told us. "It evidences their realization that business enterprises and critical infrastructure entities are a fundamental component of our country's wireless ecosystem and, like the mission critical and consumer sectors, deserve access to spectrum capable of providing broadband solutions unique to their industrial tasks.” EWA made the original proposal for broadband in 900 MHz with pdvWireless, which became Anterix. The company declined further comment Thursday.

The Utilities Technology Council and the Edison Electric Institute asked the FCC to restrict use of the spectrum to entities eligible for licensing under Section 90.603 of commission rules, including utilities and other business, industrial and land transportation (B/ILT) licensees. “Without this provision,” those airwaves “could be converted to commercial wireless common carrier service to the public at large, thus leaving B/ILT Part 90 eligible entities … without access to spectrum that they need to ensure highly reliable, available and secure communications for their business operations,” they said. UTC and EEI didn’t comment on the outlook for the order.

Anterix reported on calls to aides for Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks (see here, here and here). “The parties discussed the benefits of modernizing the 900 MHz band in a way that will facilitate the utility sector’s efforts to fuel the evolution to a smarter, cleaner grid with rules that will allow continued narrowband operations for entities that elect continued use of that technology,” the filings said.

Alliant Energy said the FCC should protect adjacent narrowband PCS spectrum, which it uses for about 1.4 million electric and gas customers. “That infrastructure must always be reliable and free of harmful interference in order to minimize risks to the public and maximize the public interest,” the utility said.

Phoenix Center President Lawrence Spiwak asked that the draft be changed to make clear that, while Chief Economist George Ford wrote a paper on the 900 MHz band, the center didn’t do so of behalf of Anterix. “The Phoenix Center is an independent research organization and does not represent any party but the Center, unless otherwise indicated,” he said. Filings were posted Thursday in docket 17-200.