C-Band Auction Results Could Ease Access to Federal Spectrum: Simington

"Incredible" proceeds of the C-band auction "changed the game somewhat" in federal spectrum management, greasing the path for more federal agency participation in sharing or relocation, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington said Thursday in a Lincoln Network talk. The $81.2 billion in auction proceeds (see 2102180041) show how valuable some spectrum is to commercial operators, making it clear there will be ample funds available for spectrum relocation fund (SRF) uses and "mitigating somewhat" the pain of federal relocation from those bands, he said.

Government incumbents "are less likely to push back" against relocation or sharing if they feel the FCC will "engage with them in good faith," Simington said. The agency has a good track record, "but it's a continual process," he said. He said he has "a personal project" of frequent DOD outreach, and acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel is also closely engaged with Defense.

“Better coordination between these agencies ultimately means more spectrum and more innovation to help revitalize American wireless leadership and build the 5G future," Rosenworcel emailed. "Commissioner Simington shares this goal, and I welcome his efforts to help strengthen our relationships with our federal partners.”

Rather than process reform, the FCC/NTIA relationship requires "soft skills" massaging, with the commission needing to ensure it engages with stakeholder agencies alongside NTIA, Simington said. He said there need to be more individual relationships between the two agencies, involving both FCC commissioners and staff. He said more bilateral contacts means less "work[ing] through choke points."

The FCC should look at ways "to pull the sting" of when entrenched interests have to fully absorb the blow of spectrum being reassigned or licenses modified, and they're not eligible for favorable SRF treatment, Simington said. "So to them, any spectrum reallocation is a pure dead loss." The AWS-1 and AWS-3 auctions showed how big a deal SRF-funded upgrades and modernizations can be for federal agencies, resulting in hundreds of modernizations, often of decades-old equipment, Simington said.

State net neutrality approaches could be "one of the biggest challenges" to the current Communications Act Title I federal rules regime, Simington said. He said there's so much political momentum in some states for net neutrality that the result could be dozens of different compliance regimes, and federal preemption "starts to look like a gift to industry." California's law is taking effect after ISP associations preliminarily lost a challenge (see 2102230074).

Simington said he hasn't heard any proposals within the FCC to revert to Title II classification of broadband. He said his office is putting together a variety of economic analyses based on different scenarios of Title II reinstitution, trying to quantify possible harms. He said if the agency does head toward Title II reclassification, his focus will be on trying to get "responsible Title II."