Pai Expected to Seek Votes on 5G, Other Items at Final Meeting

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to tee up several items for a busy Jan. 13 open meeting, his last on the commission, industry and FCC officials said. The meeting is expected to be 5G heavy, including a notice on a 2.5 GHz auction and possibly a 3.45-3.55 GHz and 12 GHz item. Also likely, Pai could use the meeting to complete action on the latest Communications Act Section 706 report (see 2012160051) and other items he wants to finalize as chairman. Pai’s blog on the meeting is due Tuesday, with draft items to be posted Wednesday.

Questions remain about 3.45-3.55 GHz and whether FCC staff would have time to digest all the comments that were just filed on a September NPRM, a few weeks after replies were due (see 2012080052), officials said. Pai faces time pressures because under FCC rules he can’t force a vote on anything circulated after the end of this week. The FCC didn’t comment.

The meeting will be the first for new Commissioner Nathan Simington, who has already voted on some items before commissioners, officials said. Simington named Erin Boone interim wireless aide and Tyler Bridegan interim media aide. Both are FCC staffers assigned to his office.

“Historically, the convention has been for outgoing chairmen to make their last meeting merely a review of their accomplishments,” said Cooley’s Robert McDowell. “But these are unconventional times, so maybe, come to think of it, it’s not surprising that Ajit’s last meeting would be busy and substantive.”

“The reported effort to ram through a hastily drafted and highly controversial order on the auction of 3.45-3.55 GHz would be a major breach of the bipartisan ‘pencils down’ understanding this close to FCC control changing parties,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “The comment cycle just ended, and the usual period of ex parte give and take would be skipped,” he said. It would also ignore “that Congress has included language in the relief bill today that gives the FCC leeway to consider if an auction more integrated with the adjacent [citizens broadband radio service] band, and the band immediately below 3.45 GHz, best serves the public interest,” he said.

In the 3.45-3.55 GHz proceeding, commenters debated whether the FCC should impose flexible-use rules, similar to those in the C band, or a sharing regime, closer to the CBRS band.

Wireless ISP Association officials urged a CBRS-style approach, in the latest filing in docket 19-348, posted Monday. The CBRS auction design “attracted 271 different qualified bidders and 228 different winning bidders, much more than the Commission has been able to attract in spectrum auctions using” larger licenses, WISPA said. Winners “included large nationwide mobile wireless companies, large cable companies, and small fixed wireless companies with 500 or fewer subscribers.”

Auction the band “under a full-power commercial framework before the end of 2021, subject to a reasonable coordination framework with government incumbents remaining in the band,” CTIA General Counsel Tom Power and other officials told Simington last week.

“There is widespread agreement among interested parties that the 3.45-3.55 GHz portion of the 3.1-3.55 GHz band should be made available on a licensed basis, but we have seen some disagreement in the record regarding the service rules,” said Jeffrey Westling, R Street Institute resident fellow-technology and innovation. “General support for making this bandwidth available could be enough for the commission to move forward in January, considering just how important it is for the FCC to quickly make this band available to carriers,” he said.

The 2.5 GHz rules are likely less controversial, officials said. T-Mobile, which already has a lot of spectrum there, is considered likely to dominate that auction (see 2009180029).