Major Carriers Disagree on Rules for AWS 3 Auction
Wireless carriers are at odds on rules for the 2155 to 2175 MHz band, the spectrum sought by M2Z and other potential competitors and expected to be offered for sale in a proposed AWS 3 auction. Sprint Nextel urged the FCC to auction the spectrum without attaching major strings. But T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless said it’s paramount to protect from harmful interference carriers occupying advanced wireless service (AWS) spectrum auctioned last year.
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Sprint Nextel, which skipped the first AWS auction, urged the FCC to adopt “fully flexible, technology-neutral rules” for AWS 3. That would “increase the number of potential bidders, encourage new entrants, and increase the likelihood that the available spectrum is put to its highest and best use,” Sprint said. “The competitive bidding process can best determine the highest and best use of the AWS 3 band.”
T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, the biggest bidders in the last AWS auction, want the FCC to focus on protecting that sale’s winners from interference. T-Mobile said the FCC is eyeing three ways to use spectrum -- uplink/downlink, structured uplink/downlink, and downlink-only. “The uplink/downlink and structured uplink/downlink proposals create serious interference problems for adjacent AWS-1 licensees,” T-Mobile said. “Both proposals limit the spectral separation between AWS 1 base and mobile transmit frequencies, increasing the potential for interference and signal degradation. If the Commission adopts either of these proposals, rigorous out of band emission limits and power controls would be necessary to protect AWS 1 operations.”
CTIA took a middle path, recommending interference protection for adjacent licensees but otherwise endorsing “flexible licensing and operating rules.”
This position directly opposes that of the Minority Media and Telecom Council, which said spectrum rules should require it be used to offer free, nationwide wireless broadband. “Such a requirement will help ensure that the poor and Americans within minority groups have adequate access to broadband capability,” MMTC said. A rulemaking seeking comment on the band wrongly focused on technical issues, it said: “The Commission should instead focus on establishing a range of public interest commitments for the ultimate licensee that will ensure that operations benefit all Americans.”
In another filing, Free Press, the Media Access Project, the New America Foundation, and Public Knowledge said the spectrum should be offered in an auction. “Although we retain our preference for and commitment to unlicensed allocations, the technical characteristics of this band lead us to conclude that a licensed approach, subject to openness conditions, would likely better serve the public interest,” the groups said.