Ancillary Service Argument Further Clouds ATG Debate
Whether operators will be allowed to use the same spectrum set aside for air-to-ground (ATG) communications to offer “ancillary” services on the ground has emerged as a major issue on the 8th floor as an ATG order steams forward. The Commission appears to remain on track for a Dec. 15 vote but must address the latest complication.
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The issue is whether an operator that wins a license to offer ATG services to commercial airline passengers should be allowed to use these radio waves to offer terrestrial services, such as traditional wireless calls.
The FCC is considering a proposal to allow terrestrial operations on the 4 MHz of proposed ATG spectrum to maximize use of the spectrum. If the FCC goes along, it could make the spectrum much more valuable. Nextel, for example, is expected to pay more than $4 billion for a nationwide license giving it 10 MHz of PCS spectrum. Several versions of the ATG order have circulated at the FCC the past few months. Ancillary services has emerged as a major issue the past few days.
As the debate swirls at the FCC, wireless carriers led by CTIA are weighing in against allowing other communications using the ATG waves. Verizon Wireless -- parent of Airfone, the likely leading contender for ATG spectrum should the FCC permit a single license -- has officially weighed in against allowing ancillary service.
Cingular Wireless cited “serious interference concerns arising from concurrent terrestrial and airborne use of the same spectrum” in a recent filing in the ATG docket. “In the absence of extensive test data showing that terrestrial use of air-ground frequencies will not diminish the reliability of air-ground service, the Commission clearly should not authorize the provision of terrestrial service on air-ground frequencies and thereby jeopardize its availability for public safety needs,” the carrier said.
T-Mobile noted that the 4 MHz is the only spectrum set aside for ATG: “Because this band is located immediately adjacent to CMRS spectrum, there is a significant risk that the licensee would decide to abandon the ATG market and instead the deploy the spectrum to offer terrestrial CMRS services only.” Sprint said offering ancillary services using the spectrum is “unsupported by the record in this proceeding.” CTIA said its concerns about potential interference with existing services “would be amplified if the Commission were to consider a terrestrial service in the air-to-ground band.”
The ancillary service debate has inevitably gotten tied to the larger recurring argument over whether the FCC should provide for an auction offering a single 4 MHz license, supported by Airfone, or multiple licenses, as promoted by AirCell and Boeing. Proponents of multiple licenses believe they are gaining traction on the 8th floor, though the Wireless Bureau remains committed to a single license.
AirCell CEO Jack Blumenstein told us Tues. allowing the use of the spectrum for other purposes while creating a single licenses could part of a “hidden effort that would allow a single operator to acquire all that spectrum at relatively nominal rates.”
Blumenstein said the FCC should make clear the 4 MHz of spectrum can used be used for providing ATG, and also permit multiple licenses. “With Nextel, Sprint, Cingular, T-Mobile among the carriers all saying that the ATG spectrum should not be used for other purposes this should be cleanly and clearly addressed,” he said: “From a more fundamental policy standpoint, our focus is on providing competition to the aviation community. We think that requires both a competitive structure and, secondly, the dedication of the spectrum that has been set aside just for that purpose.”
Meanwhile, the Hill has begun to weigh in. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chmn. Burns (R-Mont.) urged the FCC to allow multiple licenses. Burns, in a Dec. 1 letter to the FCC, said he supports ATG rule changes to develop alternatives to the existing “high-cost seatback phones” available on some airlines.
“Passengers on commercial airlines anxiously await the opportunity to use their own phones, laptops and PDA’s during flights, and need a new generation of on-board broadband voice and data systems to make this possible,” he said. For airlines to offer services at lower prices, the FCC needs to “formulate a policy that promotes competition in the air-ground services,” Burns said: “I understand that AirCell Inc. and Boeing Corp. jointly have proposed a system that would permit the sharing of the available air-ground spectrum to allow for 2 licenses and avoid the creation of a monopoly in these services.”