MMDS GROUP CALLS FOR ITFS AUCTION
The Ad Hoc MMDS Licensee Consortium (AMLC), contradicting Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) statements, told the FCC some companies would be very supportive of a carve-out creating a new 12 MHz band of spectrum -- taken in part from the ITFS band -- to be sold at auction for wireless broadband and other advanced services.
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AMLC directly contradicted WCA arguments that no one in the industry had asked the FCC to create the new channels during a recent rulemaking. “We proposed that the Commission reclaim non-educationally used spectrum from the ITFS band and auction that spectrum off to commercial users,” the coalition said.
“In our view, this proposal followed quite directly from the Commission’s request for comments about how to deal with the fact that much of the ITFS spectrum was being used for purposes other than education. To the best of our knowledge, no one filed reply comments objecting to this proposal.” AMLC referred to a Sept. 2003 filing in which it called for both the spectrum carve-out and a special 2-way auction of ITFS spectrum in which holders of ITFS spectrum would have had to made a fictional bid on their own spectrum. If outbid they would have had to make it available to other companies. The auction would have formalized the secondary spectrum market.
“We emphasize that our proposal contemplated reclamation only of ITFS spectrum since it was founded upon the thesis that channels being used commercially should not continue to be licensed and regulated under the fiction that they are educational,” AMLC said: “We continue to support this view and believe it was well within the broad scope of the NPRM.”
Meanwhile, both sides are reaching out to the FCC this week, with an ITFS order possible June 10. In a filing Tues. the National ITFS Assn. (NIA), the Catholic Television Network (CTN) and the Education Community specifically questioned the extent to which taking spectrum away from ITFS would erode usefulness of the spectrum.
“We believe that the proposed bandplan is flawed in suggesting a reduction in channel widths in the lower and upper band segments, as the plan would no longer effectively accommodate flexible use of the band for both [time division duplexing] and [frequency division duplexing] technologies,” the groups said. “The loss of spectrum by each ITFS licensee as well as the loss of the I band, would also result in a significant loss of capacity and educational value.”
The FCC is considering an order that would auction 12 MHz of ITFS spectrum in a final ITFS/MMDS bandplan. The Commission must decide by Thurs. whether to place the order on the June 10 agenda for a vote.