CBRS

After years of work, the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band appears ready to open for business, as early as next month, FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told us. O’Rielly predicted an FCC decision soon on the C band, and said the agency may not need to review CBS' buy of Viacom. O’Rielly insisted relations have improved among commissioners.

The citizens broadband radio service band moved another step closer to opening. NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences released final test reports to companies that participated in testing on sharing the 3.5 GHz band. “The completed tests will drive progress toward initial commercial deployments in the band, prized for its excellent mix of capacity and coverage capabilities,” blogged Keith Gremban, director of the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences. “With 4G LTE technology for the band available today, industry has already begun to develop specifications to support 5G deployments.” The FCC plans to use the reports to certify that the spectrum access systems are complying with its rules, Gremban said Friday. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly predicts the band will likely be the first mid-band spectrum to come online for 5G (see 1904300208).

Microsoft and Verizon received FCC experimental licenses to do tests in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Microsoft plans tests at its campus in Redmond, Washington. Verizon said it plans “a series of field tests” using BDRS devices at different locations. “Field tests will be conducted in a production network, in a highly controlled field environment, in order to assist in the development of commercial products,” the carrier said: “The testing will benefit the public interest by enabling the pre-commercial testing of new products outside of a lab environment but in a controlled and managed manner.”

Intel sought FCC permission to test communications in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band at an Intel campus in Chandler, Arizona. Intel plans to use equipment by Ruckus Wireless and asked for a year-long experimental license.

Debate over the best plan for clearing spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band is expected to be the big draw for stakeholders during the House Communications Subcommittee's Tuesday hearing on spectrum policy issues. It won't be the only focus. Six other bands are known to be on subcommittee members' radar amid ongoing Capitol Hill interest in U.S. strategy for taking a lead role in 5G development, lawmakers and lobbyists said in interviews. The panel is set to start at 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn (see 1907100069).

The 6 GHz, citizens broadband radio service and C bands got much of the attention at the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Global Summit Thursday. Another hot topic was CBRS-like sharing beyond the 3.5 GHz band. FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly touched on all three bands during his keynote speech (see 1906270026).

CTIA, the Wireless Innovation Forum and Wireless ISP Association said the FCC should reject a petition by CallComm seeking reconsideration of the 2018 citizens broadband radio service order. The company, in docket 17-258, said the FCC failed to address the protected status of non-federal land mobile radiolocation licensees in the 3.5 GHz band. “Dismiss the Petition as untimely and substantively deficient,” CTIA asked: “The Petition does not identify a single issue raised or decided in the 2018 3.5 GHz Report and Order for purposes of reconsideration and instead amounts to an untimely petition for reconsideration of the Commission’s 2015 3.5 GHz Report and Order.” Due to its secondary status, CallComm “is not entitled to incumbency rights or interference protection with respect to primary services in the band, including the fixed and mobile allocations under which the [CBRS] operates,” the WinnForum said. WISPA also objected.

The 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band is unlikely to play a big role in Wi-Fi and instead will provide the unlicensed component of 5G, Martha Suarez, new president of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance, said in an interview. Suarez recently joined DSA after serving as general director of the National Spectrum Agency in Colombia. DSA’s global summit is this week in Washington.

Google filed a report card on lab certification testing done on its citizens broadband radio service spectrum access system by the Commerce Department’s Institute for Telecommunications Sciences. The filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 15-319 asked that all the data be treated as confidential. It "constitutes highly sensitive commercial information that falls within Exemption 4 of the Freedom of Information Act," Google said: "Certain portions of the confidential information also implicate operational security concerns for the U.S. Navy."

Telecom and other groups opposed AT&T proposal to operate using higher power limits in parts of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. They "express, in the strongest of terms, their policy, operational, and legal objections to AT&T’s proposed" Category C antenna, said Tuesday's letter in FCC docket 17-258. The change would let CBRS devices operate at a maximum effective isotropic radiated power of 62 dBm/10 MHz, 31 times maximum EIRP now, the letter said. “On the verge of Initial Commercial Deployments and General Authorized Access use of the band, AT&T’s ‘questions concerning whether the Commission would entertain’ such a proposal should be met with a resounding ‘NO.’” Altice USA, the American Petroleum Institute, Frontier, Motorola Solutions, Windstream and Wireless ISP Association protested the AT&T request. The company didn’t comment.