Pai Defends FCC Decision on Ligado, Expects 'Massive' C-Band Auction

The FCC made the right decision on Ligado, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told Incompas Tuesday during its virtual conference. Pai stressed FCC focus on 5G, saying the upcoming C-band auction will be “massive.” Pai said more is coming, including on the 5.9 GHz band and a follow-up order on 6 GHz (see 2008200040). “We have a lot of big irons in the fire,” he said.

The decision on Ligado’s L band had been pending for more than a decade, said Incompas CEO Chip Pickering, who interviewed Pai. “Somebody, maybe with less courage, may have let it sit there.”

“It would have been exceptionally easy for me to just kick the can down the road, as some of my predecessors had done,” Pai replied. “We’re called to these jobs to make the tough decisions, to take the arrows and to do the right thing,” he said. “It was fairly clear. Based on the technical information we had, we believed that we could thread the needle by approving Ligado’s application with important conditions.” The FCC “held the door open for federal agencies and others to voice any concerns” and gave DOD the proposed decision six months beforehand, he said. Pai knew “the pushback” was “going to be pretty stiff.”

No band has been easy, Pai said. “Every single band I have encountered over the last several years … you’ll always find some entity, a federal agency or private company, saying, ‘I’m all in favor of U.S. leadership in 5G, just not in this band,’” he said: “That’s not a viable way forward.” Pickering said: “I’ve never seen so much spectrum getting into the pipeline.”

T-Mobile having bought Sprint will mean “better, faster services,” Pai said. Dish Network got prepaid provider Boost Mobile in an agreement with regulators, giving Dish the tools “to become a viable, stand-alone fourth competitor,” he said. AT&T and Verizon are “feeling the competitive pressure, and that’s ultimately good for consumers,” he said. Dish is an Incompas member, Pickering noted: “We’re excited to see what happens over the next two, three years.”

The FCC rightly focused on streamlining reviews of wireless to make sure state and local approvals aren’t a roadblock, Pai said. The small-cell order “was critical,” he said. It allows local governments “to recover reasonable costs” and sets “reasonable time frames for them to approve siting applications,” he said.

In August, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals mostly upheld the agency’s 2018 wireless infrastructure orders on small cells and local moratoriums (see 2008120048), Pai noted. “The more difficult it is for any company, especially the smaller ones, to jump through all these regulatory hoops, the less likely is that they’ll be able to raise capital, hire work crews and build these networks.”

Pai welcomed the compromise proposed by Incompas and USTelecom on when unbundled network elements will continue to be available (see 2008280063). “I know the issues were difficult” and “members were on opposite sides of these issues in a lot of cases,” Pai said. He hoped the proposal gets broad support in industry and at the FCC. The two groups just reached a further pact (see 2009150063).

“The No. 1 lesson” from the COVID-19 pandemic “is that you can’t benefit from remote learning or telehealth if you don’t have broadband,” Pai said: “Our bread-and-butter work to close the digital divide is more important than ever.”

The FCC’s top priority must be expanding broadband, said Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. “Even the most basic internet access has not reached all,” he said. “Low-income folks, people of color, people in rural communities either aren’t getting connected online or are making great sacrifices in order to get connected.”

The FCC needs to “act now” to address gaps in the Lifeline program (see 2009150072), Starks said. “At a time when so many need Lifeline’s benefits, fewer than 20% of eligible households do participate,” he said: “Its current benefits need to meet the moment.” More than 15 million students don’t have broadband at home, he said. Just addressing rural needs isn’t enough, he said. Census Bureau surveys show that three times as many households in urban areas remain unconnected, he said. “Black and brown households are disproportionately less likely to have fixed broadband connection than their white counterparts,” he said: “COVID-19 has laid bare that already cruel reality of that digital divide.”

The FCC reacted quickly to the start of the pandemic six months ago but isn’t declaring victory, said Commissioner Brendan Carr. “We still need more buildout,” he said. “We need more Americans connected, but I’m really happy with the way that networks performed.” House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., cited the continued need for Congress to include broadband funding in the next COVID-19 aid bill (see 2009150068). Doyle highlighted telecom policy differences between Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump (see 2009150073).

Carr said the FCC’s wireless infrastructure orders helped the U.S. compete with China on 5G deployment. “When we got the government out of the way and let your providers invest and compete, we turned this story around,” he said. Carr emphasized the importance of telehealth. In a visit last week to Ohio and Michigan, he said one clinic he toured had 400 “telehealth interactions” monthly before the pandemic; now, it's 30,000 monthly.