CBRS

The U.S. is moving toward creation of a national spectrum strategy that would predict spectrum trends and allow companies to do a better job of planning, said DOD spectrum chief Fred Moorefield at the National Spectrum Management Association annual conference Tuesday. “I think you'll see that coming out of the White House soon." He noted the Pentagon will update its own spectrum road map and action plan.

The American Petroleum Institute can't support a proposal last week by the Wireless ISP Association and others on the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band because it would allow only two census-tract-sized priority access licenses (PALs) in each market (see 1805100062). The better proposal would provide four census-tract licenses in each market and four wide-area licenses, API said. “This would not only achieve a fair compromise with the large wireless carriers, but would allow at least 40 megahertz of CBRS spectrum for oil and gas industry entities and other industrial and critical-infrastructure operators to self-provision their own geographically-targeted private wireless … networks at their facilities throughout the United States,” API said Monday in docket 17-258. Meanwhile, Key Bridge Wireless and Fairspectrum, two prospective spectrum access system (SAS) administrators in the band, said census-tract PALs shouldn't be a concern. “Large mobile carriers now complain that licensing PALs according to census tracts is unworkable,” the two said. “While others have forcefully corrected these claims, we write to emphasize that no SAS administrator has claimed that incorporating census tracts into the SAS is too difficult and no SAS administrator has asked the Commission to change the size of PAL areas.”

Census tracts are likely to be a battleground in licensing the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, with the CBRS Coalition proposal explicitly including census tract licenses (see 1805100062), experts and insiders told us Friday. A rival plan from CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association involves county-based and metropolitan statistical area licenses (see 1804230064). CTIA and CCA didn't comment Friday. The CBRS Coalition proposal contains a mix of licensing areas for everyone, emailed Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld. "That is what a compromise is," he said. "It means everyone gets something." Parties who don't think census tracts are usable "don't have to bid on them," he said. That the CBRS Coalition is made up of interests ranging from small mobile carriers to electric co-ops points to the difficulty of getting them all on the same page, so the coalition's proposal was its bottom line, not a starting point for talks, said a Coalition member executive. The FCC might be able to come up with a third position, but that seems unlikely, the executive said, saying it's also unlikely CTIA and CCA can or will modify their position.

Chairman Ajit Pai has canceled most of the meetings she had scheduled with him since she returned to the FCC last year, Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Thursday during a news conference. Earlier in the week, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, who's leaving, said she was unable to regularly schedule meetings with Pai (see 1805070036).

The CBRS Alliance, promoting the future use of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, Tuesday launched the OnGo brand and a certification program for CBRS devices. Last month, the alliance unveiled network and coexistence baseline specifications. “I would compare this to Wi-Fi,” CBRS Alliance President Dave Wright said in an interview. “Everybody knows what Wi-Fi means. It’s a very versatile brand. It applies to all kinds of different applications of a technology and use cases.”

Charter Communications is testing of use of the 3.5 GHz spectrum in fixed wireless applications in some markets and mobility applications in others, like Tampa, it blogged Friday. It said the testing will help prepare for its mobile wireless service launch, expected in the middle of this year (see 1804270033). It said it has 200 citizens broadband radio service small cellsites deployed in Tampa in a variety of settings, and it's considering how the CBRS band could be part of its wireless operations. Charter said it plans ubiquitous wireless connectivity through a mix of Wi-Fi 4G, LTE and 5G

Negotiations on the future of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band are on. FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly called in several principals last week for a meeting, said a filing in docket 17-258. The Competitive Carriers Association, CTIA, General Electric, NCTA, NTCA, the Rural Wireless Association and the Wireless ISP Association attended. “The parties explained the importance of the 3.5 GHz band to serving a variety of business cases and deployment plans,” said a joint filing. “The parties specifically offered their perspectives on the geographic licensing areas for Priority Access Licenses in the 3.5 GHz band, consistent with their respective filings in this proceeding.”

AT&T said the Wireless ISP Association is incorrect in recent arguments on dangers of large license sizes in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band (see 1804240067). WISPA disagreed with AT&T claims that census-tract-sized licenses are unworkable for carriers. “WISPA’s argument rests on the incorrect assertion that Priority Access License (PAL) holders will have a degree of certainty from the Spectrum Access System (SAS) that allows them to mitigate the impact of small licensing areas and, effectively, aggregate up to larger regions,” AT&T countered in a Thursday filing in docket 17-258. WISPA’s claim is “incorrect and contradicted by the FCC’s rules,” AT&T said. “Even if an algorithm could be developed to maximize common channel assignments to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, common channels cannot be guaranteed because of auction and incumbent issues in any event. And those problems get even worse when channel assignments are remapped because of dynamic events.”

Tech and utility interests said the FCC should retain census-tract-sized licenses for priority access licenses in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. They countered arguments by AT&T and T-Mobile (see 1804240067) that the FCC should adopt larger sizes to make PALs more viable. “The Commission has previously and rightly concluded that its rules should ensure that the 3.5 GHz band remains compatible with the full range of users and business models that the CBRS rules were intended to support in urban areas,” said a filing in docket 17-258. Among those signing were the American Petroleum Institute, Edison Electric Institute, Enterprise Wireless Alliance, Exelon, General Electric, Google, Motorola Solutions, pdvWireless, the Port of Los Angeles, Southern Linc, Union Pacific and the Utilities Technology Council. “To support their claims, AT&T and T-Mobile highlight a single implausible scenario in an attempt to show that the existing rules do not easily support large-carrier business models,” the filing said. “The Commission should recognize this example as only one of many possible deployment scenarios for major carriers, which is not demonstrative of the utility of the band for all carriers’ deployments over multiple contiguous census tracts, much less those of other potential innovative users.” The two carriers didn't comment Thursday. NCTA said it supports a proposal on the PALs by Charter Communications, which offers an alternative to CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association's plan (see 1804230064). The operator wants the 3.5 GHz band licensed in the top 10 percent of metropolitan statistical area cellular market areas on a county basis, the next 275 largest CMAs licensed by MSA and the remaining CMAs by county. NCTA has before advocated 3.5 GHz priority access licenses should be granted on a county basis (see 1708090058). The cable group said, posted Thursday, that county-sized licenses in rural and urban markets "could make all the difference" in helping attract different investors with different models and maximizing participation. T-Mobile said in a filing the use of census tracts would create problems, especially in cities. “Licensing PALs by census tracts in urban areas will not expand the pool of providers meaningfully able to participate in an auction -- it means that any auction winner in an urban area will secure an authorization that will be significantly impaired and may be unable to be practically used,” T-Mobile said.

The Trump administration is developing a national spectrum strategy, NTIA Administrator David Redl said at a Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday. The Obama administration took an active role on spectrum policy, promoting sharing over exclusive use licenses in many cases, but the Trump administration has been relatively quiet (see 1712270032). Redl said NTIA is working with the administration on a plan. FCC and industry officials welcomed the administration’s long-awaited deep dive.