CBRS

Geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites are limited in their ability to connect people around the world, but low earth orbit (LEO) satellites offer much more promise, said Ruth Pritchard-Kelly, OneWeb senior adviser-satellite regulatory affairs and sustainable space policy, Thursday at IEEE’s virtual Connecting the Unconnected Summit. Other speakers said it’s difficult to even count how many people remain without internet service in many parts of the world.

Charter Communications is dealing with higher-than-expected costs for its Rural Deployment Opportunity Fund buildout but also is having more success than expected in penetration and number of passings being developed off RDOF projects, CEO Tom Rutledge told analysts Friday as the company announced Q3 results.

Etheric asked California Public Utilities Commissioner Darcie Houck to put a hold on a proposed decision, scheduled for vote Oct. 20, that would deny the company designation as an eligible telecom carrier (ETC). Etheric, which needs ETC status to get $248 million in Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) support, met virtually with a Houck aide Oct. 7, Etheric reported Wednesday. The CPUC draft includes “high-level conclusions” with no “explanation,” Etheric complained. Etheric filed its application more than two years ago, in January 2020, but had only one meeting with staff, Oct. 5, after the draft’s release, it noted. Concerns expressed about the company’s “financial ability to carry out the RDOF project were based on a misunderstanding of a letter submitted by” venture capital firm Summit Partners, Etheric said. The letter “included a standard disclaimer in a footnote meant to indicate that due to the amount of time that has passed since its initial underwriting of the project, it would need to reconfirm its underwriting and finalize credit documentation at the time Etheric receives ETC designation and the FCC publishes a public notice with final approval for the RDOF award.” To clarify, Etheric attached a letter from Summit. The CPUC proposal incorrectly found Etheric’s cost estimates for the RDOF project are too low, possibly “due to a misunderstanding about the FCC’s reserve price for the Census Blocks won by Etheric,” the company said. The FCC’s $541 million reserve price was based on all-fiber design, but Etheric calculated $248 million would cover a hybrid network mixing fiber and fixed wireless, it said. Etheric made sure it can scale its existing network and “any staff concerns about scalability should be fully addressed by the substantial financial resources at its disposal,” it said. Responding to concerns about fixed wireless performance in mountainous and dense foliage areas, Etheric said 75% “of its RDOF locations have direct line of sight between the network and customer location.” Of remaining areas, 11% will get fiber, while 14% will use citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) “UNII mid-band Tarana Radio Systems to ensure good signal levels for the light foliage conditions at those locations.”

Recommendations based on discussions at a Silicon Flatirons conference last week will include a finding that the current process for addressing spectrum conflicts in the U.S. is working for the most part, said former NTIA Administrator David Redl Saturday, during a conference wrap-up. The conference is expected to lead to release of a report. Other speakers said interference issues will become more difficult.

A White House official called for more predictability in how spectrum decisions are made, at a Silicon Flatirons spectrum conference Friday. Austin Bonner, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy assistant director-spectrum and telecom policy, said she has had meetings with “dozens” of spectrum stakeholders about how policy could change. The administration is moving toward release of a national spectrum strategy, which the Trump administration promised but never delivered (see 2209190061).

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the FCC should launch a rulemaking on higher power levels for the citizens broadband radio service band, saying that could be helpful to wireless ISPs, in a prerecorded interview with new WISP Association President David Zumwalt. The interview was aired Wednesday at a WISPA meeting in Las Vegas. “It’s worth asking the question, teeing it up,” Carr said. “There are certainly some use cases, particularly in rural communities where upping the power … might allow you from your existing tower site to reach one more home, one more business,” he said of CBRS changes: “At the end of the day, WISPs are so connected to their communities. … WISPs are scrappy. WISPs are getting the job done.” The FCC didn't comment. Carr said the FCC needs to get moving on other spectrum initiative as well, including on client-to-client devices in 6 GHz and the UNII2c band. WISPs are “looking for ways to have some stability in the ability to plan on what kind of spectrum they need to be prepared for, whether it’s licensed or unlicensed, and over what period of time they can roll that out,” Zumwalt said. His members are paying close attention to all the spectrum decisions being made at the FCC, he said. The FCC wants to offer licenses covering smaller geographic areas where possible, Carr said. “Maybe every single auction we might not get right ... but hopefully, over a course of years, we are doing some small geographies, some large geographies, and people are seeing a healthy mix,” he said. WISPA members have continuing concerns about NTIA’s broadband, equity, access and deployment program notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and appreciate the questions that have been raised by Carr (see 2207210064), Zumwalt said: “It should have been more technology neutral and inclusive.” Carr said it looked to him like NTIA made “a lot of the right cuts” in the NOFO but “there was some political turning of the dials at the last minute.” Carr agreed about the need to refocus the NOFO. “We love fiber, we want tons of fiber,” he said. “But we need to be open-minded … for last-mile technologies, including fixed wireless,” he said. “We love fiber too,” Zumwalt responded: “But we love fiber in the right place, in the right circumstance.” Carr said insisting on a fiber-only approach means telling people “you need to wait on the wrong side of the digital divide years longer than necessary.” The FCC faces challenges delivering on a broadband map, expected in November, Carr said. “I don’t know that we have to hit a bulls-eye” with the initial map “but we have to at least get it in the strike zone,” he said. Carr said he hopes the FCC doesn’t revisit reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service. “That’s just a backward looking debate,” he said. Title II and possible price controls, “really that’s a 2005 debate,” he said.

The FCC Wireless Bureau conditionally approved a Federated Wireless request for an emergency waiver of citizens broadband radio service rules to relieve the company of the requirement for environmental sensing capabilities to detect and protect federal incumbent users in the band from harmful interference in dynamic protection areas in Puerto Rico, hit by Hurricane Fiona. The waiver applies only to periods when the ESC sensors are unable to communicate with Federated’s spectrum access system “due to a power outage or backhaul outage,” said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. It's limited to “the earlier” of Oct. 6 “or when commercial power and backhaul service is restored to the subject ESC sensors.

The FCC is giving fixed satellite service earth station operators in the 3.6-3.7 GHz band until Oct. 17 to register with the agency. The FCC noted the registration was required for grandfathered stations as part of its work on the citizens broadband radio service band. The deadline for this year was Dec. 1, 2021. “We recognize that this is a relatively new process and so, to avoid any unnecessary service interruptions, we are providing a one-time grace period for any FSS earth station licensee that failed to submit its 2022 annual registration,” said a Thursday notice: After Oct. 17 “registrations that have not been completed for 2022 may be deactivated or deleted, and the site will no longer merit protection by the Spectrum Access System administrators.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a one-year waiver extension of rules for the citizens broadband radio service allowing the NFL to continue operating a coach-to-coach communications system in the event of a localized internet outage in stadiums during games (see 2207120055). The bureau gave the NFL only part of what it sought. “While we find that a grant of a conditional waiver would be consistent with the underlying purpose of the rule and serve the public interest, we decline to grant the waiver for the requested three-year period,” said a Wednesday order in docket 21-111: “We will instead restrict it to a period of one NFL season as Petitioner has not demonstrated a need for a longer waiver period.”

State broadband offices are adapting to much larger sums of cash than they had in years past, due to recent federal laws, said a Tennessee official at a virtual Broadband Breakfast event Wednesday. Building broadband “to and through” anchor institutions can sometimes be the best option to reach rural communities, said New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) and the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition in a Wednesday report.