FCC's Berry, CTIA See No FCC Interest in National 5G Network Proposal

FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry and a top CTIA official downplayed reports the Trump administration is pushing the Pentagon to move forward on developing a national 5G network. The wireless industry sent a letter to President Donald Trump Tuesday opposing efforts to nationalize 5G network infrastructure. Berry and Scott Bergmann, CTIA senior vice president-regulatory affairs, spoke Monday at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference. DOD isn’t planning to launch a competitive 5G network, Fred Moorefield, deputy chief information officer-command, control and communications, said at an FCBA virtual conference Tuesday. Moorefield said he had seen the reports on the White House push but couldn't confirm them.

“I honestly don’t know to what extent it’s accurate,” Berry said of reports. At a House Commerce oversight hearing last month, “all the commissioners were asked whether they oppose the national 5G networks” and all did (see 2009170068), he said. The FCC plans to “reallocate … and auction” the 3.45-3.55 GHz band “by the end of 2021,” he said. The band, the subject of an FCC rulemaking, is reportedly the target of the national network push.

The proposal for a national network is “puzzling,” said Bergmann. “Our success and the reason that we were able to respond so well in the COVID pandemic is because of the focus on competition and promoting investment,” he said: “That’s why you’ve seen policymakers are both sides of the aisle express concern about potentially having nationalized 5G, mandated 5G networks.”

A September request for information by DOD (see 2009300034) on the 3.45-3.55 GHz band was wrongly viewed as a sign DOD “is looking to compete with commercial industry,” Moorefield said. “This is clearly a misreading and misrepresentation of the RFI,” which is intended “to seek information on innovative solutions and alternative approaches to enable dynamic spectrum sharing,” he said. An administration project, America’s Mid-Band Initiative Team (AMBIT), made sharing in the 3.45-3.55 GHz band possible, Moorefield said. “The group had a clear and single purpose -- make 100 MHz of continuous nationwide midband spectrum available for 5G mobile broadband by Aug. 1,” he said. AMBIT's work was based on lessons learned through the citizens broadband radio service band, he said. “It helped us move this along more expediently,” he said: “DOD worked with the White House on an unprecedented sprint to make this 100 MHz available to industry on a shared basis.”

CTIA, the Competitive Carriers Association, NCTA, NTCA, USTelecom, Wireless Infrastructure Association and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association told Trump a national network “would be at odds with more than a century of private sector led innovation and investment in communications networks, have a chilling effect on the entire broadband sector, and jeopardize American leadership.” They said that "we will always be better off with private innovation and competition.”

Comments are due Oct. 19 on the RFI, and the department will post responses, Moorefield said. The news media, Congress and industry all focused on the RFI, “some good and some not so good,” he said: “It seeks to change the game in how we do spectrum management, move toward more spectrum sharing.” DOD is “truly trying to understand the art of the possible,” Moorefield said. No decision has been made on next steps beyond the RFI, he said. “DOD understands that antiquated thinking in spectrum tools is contributing to slower spectrum repurposing decisions,” Moorefield said. “We also know that we need a whole of nation approach to change how we do spectrum. … We cannot be beholden to the current auction-focused spectrum policies.” The 3.45-3.55 GHz band contains airborne, ground-based and ship-borne radars, Moorefield said. “Everyone knows sharing with radar is very hard and very complicated.” The U.S. military needs to “remain the predominant force in the world” and to be able to do that, “we have to do more spectrum sharing,” he said.

With the C-band auction, the opening of the citizens broadband radio service band and a 2021 auction of 3.45 GHz spectrum, the U.S. is on “a path to have a contiguous 530-megahertz swath -- from 3.45 to 3.98 GHz -- of mid-band spectrum available for 5G,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said at the Americas spectrum conference. “This has been the most aggressive FCC in history when it comes to spectrum.” FCC changes to wireless infrastructure rules are working, Pai said. “We added fewer than 7,000 cellsites from 2013 to 2016, but added over 87,000 from 2016 to 2019, with an increase of over 46,000 in 2019.”

During a Q&A, Pai declined to say whether he plans to stay on next year as chairman if Trump is reelected and predicted a busy end to 2020. “We’re just going to keep sprinting to the end of the year,” he said: “I’ll make a decision when it’s time to make a decision.” The upcoming Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will be important to 5G, especially in providing backhaul, Pai said. The FCC “put a finger on the scale in terms of faster speeds and lower latency,” he said. “We’ve opened it up to competition from a variety of providers, rural telcos, electric utilities, cable companies, fixed wireless companies and others."

The FCC is relying on multistakeholder groups in both the C band and in 6 GHz, Pai said. “These are technically complex questions.” Pai stressed the importance of security. “We have encouraged all these companies to say, we cannot think of security as an afterthought as you’re constructing next-generation networks,” he said: “Think of security upfront. … It’s much better than trying to retrofit an often imperfect solution.”

Wireless carriers faced big challenges due to the pandemic, Bergmann said. Eighty percent of voice connections were mobile before “but all of a sudden” every conversation he was having was on his cellphone, he said. Wireless networks proved “remarkably strong” and the FCC deserves credit for making spectrum available on an emergency basis and keeping mid-band proceedings “on track,” he said.

When the FCC saw the way usage patterns shifted due to the pandemic “you do hold your breath a bit to see what’s going to happen,” Berry said. The networks performed well for the reasons cited by Bergmann, he said. The CBRS auction was delayed by only a month because of hard work by FCC staff, he said. The C-band auction is “on track” to start Dec. 8 as planned, he said. “COVID-19 emphasizes the importance” of mid-band auctions, “but those auctions … would have happened with or without COVID.”

Commissioner Geoffrey Starks stressed the importance of open radio access networks to 5G security. Some in the administration say ORAN is “pie in the sky,” he said, citing February remarks by Attorney General William Barr (see 2006020064). “It is clear from the FCC’s recent initiatives and events that there is bipartisan enthusiasm” for ORAN, Starks said. The FCC “does have a strong role … in setting out the policy, the vision,” he said. It can bring attention to ORAN, provide technical expertise and update regulations as needed, he said.

Starks urged Congress to appropriate the $1.8 billion that providers say they need to rip and replace Huawei and ZTE equipment from their networks. “A poorly executed effort really has the potential to hurt” overall wireless competition, he said. Starks said he spoke with many smaller carriers that say they can’t afford to act without federal funding. “They also need some clarity on when the money is to come,” he said: “We need Congress to move.”

“All spectrum is not the same,” said Ira Keltz, deputy chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, during a Tuesday panel. “Every situation is different and everything kind of has to be evaluated somewhat by itself as we look at where we go next and how we create more efficiency,” he said. “5G is better than 4G,” he said. “It’s a little bit more efficient” with “a little more throughput,” he said, “but those gains are somewhat incremental” now, he said: “I don’t mean to downplay 5G. … It does somewhat depend on spectrum.”

“We’re really only in about the first or second inning of where we’re going to be with 5G in a nine-inning baseball game,” said 5G Americas President Chris Pearson.