ECIP FNPRM Expected to Get 4-0 OK -- With Starks Tweak

A Further NPRM on an enhanced competition incentive program (ECIP) that would benefit small carriers and tribes is expected to be approved Thursday largely as circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, agency officials told us. One likely change is language requiring staff to prepare a five-year report on the effectiveness of the program, proposed by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, officials said. In 2019, Starks proposed a similar 10-year, data-focused, look-back report on the high cost USF program.

No entity reported calls to staff or commissioners on the FNPRM. Only the Wireless ISP Association filed a letter endorsing the draft. The FNPRM is noncontroversial enough that commissioner statements are likely to be brief, officials said.

The proposal has the support of groups representing small carriers. CTIA declined comment. The Competitive Carriers Association earlier endorsed the FNPRM (see 2110270049).

“Rosenworcel has put the spectrum needs of rural America on the front burner,” Rural Wireless Association General Counsel Carri Bennet told us. “Rural Americans have had to languish on the sidelines while larger carriers warehouse spectrum bought at auctions that were designed to keep smaller rural carriers from meaningfully participating,” she said: “This is the FCC’s opportunity to remedy the rural spectrum warehousing problem so that the promise of 5G, and 6G, can be pushed out” widely.

“As the item notes, we’ve expressed support previously for the kinds of measures under consideration," emailed NTCA Senior Vice President-Industry Affairs Michael Romano. "We look forward to weighing in further on the specifics of those policies and other ideas once the opportunity for comment opens.”

"Any time the commission can make it easier to engage in secondary market transactions, there will be a real world impact,” said Jeffrey Westling, American Action Forum director-technology and innovation policy. “Markets remain the optimal means of assigning radio operating rights to different users, but the transaction costs associated with breaking down those rights, and potentially putting them back together after the transaction concludes, can dissuade companies from engaging in the secondary market.” The FCC must be careful “not to distort the market even further by benefiting a specific group of sublessees at the expense of other competitors,” he said: “Just because a firm is small … doesn't mean it will necessarily value the license more than a larger firm or that consumers will benefit.”

WISPA urged the FCC “to approve the Draft FNPRM without material changes … so that it can invite further public comment on the intended benefits of accelerating secondary market transactions in rural area,” in a filing in docket 19-38. “A critical component of the ECIP is the incentives created for large carriers to enter into secondary market transactions,” the group said: “WISPA appreciates that the Draft FNPRM offers some creative proposals to extend license ... and construction terms and to permit geographic-based construction benchmarks.”

“ECIP helps to close the digital divide,” said Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner: “If you are building a new network today ORAN is the way to go.”

The ECIP is aimed at helping to close the digital divide, the draft says. It proposes to allow “partition, disaggregation, and/or long-term leasing of covered geographic spectrum licenses between unaffiliated entities.” At least half the spectrum would have to go to a small carrier or tribal nation, or be focused on serving rural markets. At least 25% of the licensed market area would have to involve a small carrier or federally recognized tribe, or be “a rural-focused transaction,” covering at least 300 contiguous square miles, the draft says.

Transactions under ECIP would get five-year license extensions and a one-year extension of construction requirements, or be subject to alternate rules for rural areas, the draft says. It asks whether to require use of open radio access network technology.