EWA Asks FCC to Lift Long-Standing T-Band Freeze Now That Auction Won't Happen

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance asked the FCC to immediately lift the nearly nine-year T-band freeze, after President Donald Trump signed into law (see 2012280052) the FY 2021 appropriations and COVID-19 aid omnibus bill, which includes a repeal of the mandate that the FCC auction the spectrum. EWA said its members -- business/industrial land transportation (B/ILT) licensees -- should have the first shot at the band. But industry officials said the FCC will have to weigh interests because public safety agencies are also interested in expanding there.

The 470-512 MHz T band was a dilemma for the FCC. Congress ordered an auction of the band in the 2012 Spectrum Act that created FirstNet, but carriers and other commenters agreed there's no commercial interest in the band (see 2009300030). The T band is used in 11 cities, including by public safety entities in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Washington. In other markets, like Houston, the band is primarily used for B/ILT.

“We will review and consider the request,” an FCC spokesperson said: “As a general matter,” Chairman Ajit Pai “welcomed the congressional action removing the auction mandate.”

EWA asked the FCC to issue a notice announcing the application freeze will be modified in 60 days “to allow incumbent B/ILT licensees to file new or modification applications in their currently licensed market(s).” At the same time, the FCC would process pending renewal applications and those seeking modifications filed before the freeze. After the 60-day period, “the T-Band Freeze should be lifted entirely,” EWA said in a filing posted Tuesday in docket 13-42.

Lifting the freeze is “inevitable” now that there won’t be an auction and industry and public agencies need more access to the T band, said EWA President Mark Crosby in an interview. “I just wanted to be on record to say, ‘Let’s be careful how we do it,’” he said. “Give the incumbents a head start because they’re the ones that have been affected by the license freeze the longest, economically and everything else,” he said. “We’re trying to be helpful.”

The band has been used for 50 years and doesn't have a lot of room for new licenses, Crosby said: “It’s a mature band. It was released before they did cellular spectrum.” Crosby said the FCC likely won’t adopt all of EWA’s proposals: “They never do.” He expects public safety to weigh in with its own recommendations and noted the FCC will probably also consider narrowbanding rules for the T band, similar to those imposed in other bands.

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council hasn’t weighed in on the freeze, but Chairman Ralph Haller told us he generally likes the EWA approach. “Incumbents have been completely frozen for almost nine years,” he said: “They’ve needed to make changes to their systems to upgrade their systems, expand their systems, and they’ve been unable to.” EWA proposes early access only for B/ILT licensees, but Haller said the same rule should apply for public safety licensees. “Everyone who is in the band faces exactly the same issue of having to deal with this freeze for so long,” he said.

Haller said he expects narrowbanding requirements but said the FCC needs to give licensees several years to get their systems ready and make the change as they upgrade systems. A second public safety official agreed the FCC should move quickly to lift the freeze.