WCA Proposes Revised 3.6 GHz Licensing Regime

WCA is now proposing that the FCC create two 25 MHz blocks licensed on an MSA/RSA basis, the smallest geographic areas used by the agency. Both of the 25 MHz blocks in MSAs would be auctioned for exclusive use, it said. So would one of the RSA blocks; but the other RSA block would be made available under the FCC’s nonexclusive licensing regime, WCA said. The group originally suggested that only 25 MHz of the 50 MHz in the band be licensed for exclusive use. WCA’s revised plan also calls for applying the Commission’s designated entity bidding credit rules and prohibiting package bidding to address “the so-called ’threshold problem’ -- making it difficult for [small carriers] to compete against large companies and potentially undoing the benefits of smaller licenses sizes.”

“We believe that [WISPs] need to provide the same high quality of service to their customers as large providers, and that that quality is only possible with exclusive licensing,” WCA attorney Paul Sinderbrand told us: “By auctioning according to MSA/RSA boundaries, giving small entities bidding credits and not allowing package bidding, we believe that small entities will have a fair opportunity to acquire spectrum in the band.”

But WISPs don’t think the proposal as-is will benefit them. “We don’t believe splitting up 50 MHz [of spectrum available at 3.6 GHz] would be a good thing,” because it “would severely limit capabilities of the spectrum,” Part- 15 Organization (Part-15.org) Chmn. Michael Anderson told us. Exclusive licensing of any of the 50 MHz wouldn’t benefit WISPs either, he said, speaking on behalf of 8,000 WISPs his group represents nationwide.

Anderson said he’s “concerned about numerous issues” in the proposal. “How much bandwidth will WISPs be able to push through 25 MHz of 3.6 GHz spectrum?” he asked. For example, he said, the license exempt WISPs utilize 25 MHz of the 900 MHz band, but “they are only able to push less than 1.5 Mbps through that small block of spectrum. WISPs could never agree to a proposal that would limit the available bandwidth to the extent that it is limited in the 900 MHz spectrum.” Anderson also questioned whether DE credits are “sufficient enough to not stifle the small and medium sized license exempt WISPs.” For example, he said, if the spectrum is auctioned at $1 million with the DE credit process, the very small WISPs would still need to pay $650,000 to purchase it, which would be “unacceptable… Any amount over $5,000 out-of-pocket expense for the purchase of the license would be unacceptable to the majority of license exempt WISPs.”

WISPs “cannot agree” to the MSA/RSA part of the proposal either, Andersen said. “If technology permits the WISPs to push a minimum of 20 Mbps through a 25 MHz wide band with at least 3 non-overlapping channels and the cost of the license is affordable to most license exempt WISPs, we could concur that both MSA blocks could be auctioned so long as they include DE credits for the small and very small entrepreneurs that would make the spectrum affordable to most WISPs,” he said: “We could concur that one RSA block be auctioned so long as it includes DE credits for the small and very small entrepreneurs that would make the spectrum affordable to most WISPs. We further concur that the second block could be made available under the present [order] as non-exclusive.”

WCA argued its new licensing plan “recognizes the realities involved in the provision of wireless broadband.” For example, it said, the plan provides exclusive-use licensing in urban markets -- “the only way to ensure sufficient interference protection in more congested markets.” At the same time, it said, rural providers would be able to “choose whether QoS [quality of service] or simple access to spectrum is their highest priority.” WCA also said licensing spectrum on the basis of the 734 small RSAs and MSAs would provide entry opportunities for small and rural carriers.

The main players that influenced the WCA’s position were Motorola and TDS, which supported exclusive licensing of the entire band, as well as Intel, Alvarion and Redline, which backed exclusive licensing of the entire band but just in the largest MSAs, Sinderbrand said. All these companies are WCA members. “Cisco was the only major player opposed to any exclusive licensing, but was joined by smaller WISPs that fear they will be excluded from the band if the auction is dominated by the big players,” Sinderbrand said: “WCA’s proposal was designed to provide assurance to those smaller WISPs that they can benefit from auctioning of exclusive licenses.”

The WCA proposal came as part of the 3.6 GHz reconsideration proceeding. The FCC has allocated 50 MHz of spectrum at 3650-3700 MHz to promote deployment of wireless broadband services, such as WiMAX. The order provides for nationwide, nonexclusive licensing of terrestrial operations, utilizing a contention-based protocol requirement and mandatory registration of fixed and base stations with an obligation to avoid interference to new entrants. But several parties sought reconsideration of the order (CD June 14 p2).