FCC Defends Three-Year License Terms in 3.5 GHz Band

constrained availability of clear sources of spectrum, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service is an opportunity to add much-needed capacity through innovative sharing,” the FCC said. “With this Second Order, we finalize the regulatory scheme we created in 2015, putting in place the last rules necessary for this service to become commercially available.” The order explains why the FCC rejected a request by CTIA that the agency provide license terms of five, rather than three, years for priority access licenses (PALs). Three-year license terms “already [reflect] a balance among parties that advocated for short license terms and those that prefer longer terms,” the FCC said, saying the original rules were for one-year licenses. “Based on the record, we instead adopted a longer, three-year license term and allowed applicants to apply for two consecutive terms, during the first applications window, for a total of six years,” the FCC said. “We continue to believe that ‘three-year non-renewable license terms -- with the ability to aggregate up to six years up-front -- strike a balance between some commenters’ desire for flexibility with other commenters’ need for certainty.’” The FCC said the three-year license terms are long enough to spur investment in the 3.5 GHz band. “Non-renewable, short-term licenses are an essential component of this overall framework,” the FCC said. “They allow operators to obtain PALs when and where Priority Access to the band is needed while permitting periodic, market-based reassignment of these rights in response to changes in local conditions and operator needs.”