PK, Open Technology Institute Make Case to Starks for Sharing C Band
No one objected to a study by Jeff Reed of Virginia Tech and Reed Engineering on sharing the C band with fixed point-to-multipoint operations (see 1907020061) when the FCC took comment last year, said officials with the Open Technology Institute…
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at New America and Public Knowledge, in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. Reed said “even after a repack of earth stations, every single megahertz of the ongoing [fixed satellite service] portion of C-band can be coordinated by local ISPs in 80 percent of the U.S. where more than 80 million Americans live, communities that are disproportionately rural and underserved,” the groups said in a filing in docket 18-122, posted Monday: “This is a perfect opportunity for the Commission to dedicate not only taxpayer dollars via the Rural Development Opportunity Fund, but also ‘spectrum as infrastructure’ to dramatically narrow the rural broadband divide.” Commenting on an auction, the groups said the FCC “has no legal authority to require or specify any incentive or ‘acceleration’ payments to C-band incumbents that extend beyond actual and reasonable relocation costs.” Making 280 MHz of C-band spectrum available for 5G “as soon as possible is a national priority,” said Verizon. It has no qualms about incentives for incumbents: The Communications Act “provides ample legal authority, and Emerging Technologies offers a well-established model, for auction winners to pay incumbents, including expenses and incentive payments for accelerated clearing.” T-Mobile officials met staff from the FCC Office of General Counsel to argue for incentive payments. “The record supports satellite operators receiving some compensation for transitioning out of the C-band and requiring winning bidders to make those payments as a condition to receiving their licenses,” the carrier said: The FCC “is on solid legal footing” to impose that requirement.