Groups Ask FCC to Provide Tribal Window for AWS-3 Reauction
Public Knowledge and the National Congress of American Indians are asking the FCC to rethink draft rules for the AWS-3 reauction, which don’t include a window giving tribes a first shot at spectrum. They met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, according to a filing posted Monday in docket 25-70. Commissioners are slated to vote July 24 on auction rules (see 2507030049).
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The groups “discussed the Commission’s responsibility to act on its federal trust obligations, which include protecting tribal resources and carrying out the law in a manner that upholds tribal sovereignty,” the filing said. The most hotly contested issue when the FCC sought comment was whether to adopt a window ahead of the auction for tribal areas to get the first shot at licenses (see 2504010055), as the agency did before the 2.5 GHz auction. “A dedicated window in the AWS auction, and subsequent auctions, would reflect both the moral and legal imperatives embedded in the trust responsibility by acknowledging the distinct status of Tribes and addressing historical barriers to spectrum access,” the groups said.