The House Commerce Committee's top telecom priorities to begin 2018 include the Spectrum Auction Deposits Act (HR-4109), boosting funding for repacking reimbursements and a spate of broadband infrastructure bills set for a Tuesday hearing, committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said Monday during the State of the Net conference. The House Communications Subcommittee's Tuesday hearing will examine more than a dozen Republican-led bills filed in recent weeks laying out Republicans' vision of a broadband title in omnibus infrastructure legislation, along with Democratic and bipartisan legislation (see 1801110058, 1801160048, 1801170055, 1801180058 and 1801190048). The hearing will be before President Donald Trump's State of the Union address, which is expected to touch on his administration's infrastructure legislative proposal (see 1801170054).
A coalition of companies interested in unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band filed an FCC report explaining how the companies believe the band can be opened without harmful interference to incumbents. Industry officials said the report responds to concerns raised by the FCC, particularly Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, who asked for details on an interference mitigation strategy. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly indicated his support and urged action.
Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday urged the FCC to release a spectrum calendar, listing the dates of spectrum auctions. “Make public a #spectrum calendar, identifying what #wireless bands will be brought to market in the future,” Rosenworcel tweeted. “It can start with 28, 37, 39, and 3.5 GHz. The sooner we make our plans -- for licensed and unlicensed airwaves -- clear, the stronger our #5G future.” The FCC has been in limbo over auctions. Chairman Ajit Pai says the agency won’t hold any spectrum auctions until Congress approves legislative language that would let auction deposits be sent directly to the Treasury Department (see 1801160034). Pai says the Communications Act requires deposits placed by bidders in spectrum auctions be sent to the Treasury. “Recent regulatory requirements have dissuaded private institutions from holding upfront payments,” he testified to the House Communications Subcommittee in October. “Public institutions have indicated that they will not set up the special purpose accounts that would be necessary to offer such services. As a result, no financial institution will accommodate the holding of upfront payments in an interest bearing account for a large spectrum auction.” An FCC spokesman said Pai has been clear on the issue.
Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday he was asked by Chairman Ajit Pai to help build support on Capitol Hill for addressing FCC auction authority. “I’ve pushed as hard as I possibly can and will continue,” O’Rielly said, saying he testified on the importance of a fix and discussed it in Hill meetings. Sometimes Congress needs an “incident” to happen before it's willing to move, he told reporters. He also said he's confident the FCC's net neutrality repeal won't be overturned by lawmakers or courts.
Wireless industry lawyers see no wiggle room on FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's position that the agency won’t hold any spectrum auctions until Congress approves legislative language that would allow auction deposits to be sent directly to the Treasury Department (see 1710240065 and 1710250026). The stance raises questions about when the FCC will hold the first auction of high-frequency spectrum, which is a key building block of 5G. AT&T and other industry players want an auction of the 28 GHz and 37-40 GHz bands by December (see 1711150022).
LAS VEGAS -- Relations among FCC members remain the same as they were before the highly charged net neutrality debate resulting in last month’s vote overturning the 2015 net neutrality rules, Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told us at CES Tuesday. Clyburn joined Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr on a CES panel Tuesday, amid tight security. Meanwhile, preoccupying CES Wednesday was a blackout that struck the Las Vegas Convention Center's Central Hall and kept that portion of the show in total darkness for several hours. Later in the day the blackout was blamed on the torrential rains that poured down on Las Vegas Tuesday.
Though OneWeb Chairman Greg Wyler indirectly owns 11.84 percent of the company, that shouldn't stop his SOM1101 from applying for FCC satellite system authorization, Boeing said in an International Bureau filing Friday seeking a waiver of the agency's Section 25.159(b) rule. Boeing wants to give its 2016 application to operate a non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) broadband satellite constellation to Wyler (see 1712070055). Boeing said Section 25.159(b) prohibits applying for NGSO-like system authorization if that party has an attributable interest in another entity with a pending application for an authorized-but-unbuilt NGSO-like system using the same frequency band. Boeing said Wyler's 100 percent indirect ownership of SOM1101 doesn't implicate the rule since he holds in the aggregate "significantly less" than 33 percent of the equity and debit interests in OneWeb, which is one of the definitions in Section 25.159(b) for attributable interest. Boeing said the agency's Section 1.2110(c)(2) rule -- which defines "controlling interests" as it governs eligibility for competitive bidding credits as a designated entity in spectrum auctions -- isn't implicated because Wyler doesn't have de jure or de facto control of OneWeb. Boeing said without a Section 25.159(b) waiver, development plans for the proposed NGSO system would be unnecessarily hampered, and no other NGSO-like systems would be hurt if a waiver were granted.
AT&T proposed a plan for a high-frequency spectrum auction to consolidate spectrum holdings, especially in the 39 GHz band, one of the first set for sale. A challenge to millimeter wave bidding is that incumbents have holdings “scattered throughout the band, typically in 50 MHz chunks,” blogged Hank Hultquist, vice president-federal regulatory. “Incumbents hold different types of geographic licenses that in many cases overlay each other. In order for the auction to be successful, the FCC must find a way to reorganize the band into block sizes that are more favorable for 5G, ideally 200 MHz blocks, and maximize the number of blocks.” AT&T proposed vouchers to incumbent licensees based on number of MHz/POPs they hold. Values would be set by bidding in the allocation phase. Hultquist said Tuesday the plan puts licensees on a level playing field. “It provides an elegant solution to the mish-mash of existing holdings in a way that maximizes the value and usability of the band,” he wrote. “By guaranteeing contiguity to successful bidders, the proposal allows winning bidders to maximize the bandwidth that will ultimately be available to consumers.” FCC officials say they can hold no major spectrum auctions until Congress approves legislative language that would let auction deposits be sent directly to the Treasury Department (see 1710240065). AT&T laid out the plan in a paper filed Tuesday in docket 14-177, by economists James Bono and Allan Ingraham of Economists Inc.
Telecom policy aides for the House and Senate Commerce committees signaled optimism Friday that lawmakers can act in 2018 on legislation to encourage broadband deployment and free additional spectrum. But continued rancor means even enactment of a still-elusive compromise net neutrality bill won’t bring to an end that long-standing debate, the staffers said during a Practising Law Institute conference. Senate aides touted the August passage of several long-stalled telecom bills, including the Mobile Now Act (S-19) spectrum bill, as their top achievement of 2017. Their House colleagues noted progress on FCC reauthorization and strong oversight of telecom-related agencies (see 1708030060, 1710110070 and 1710250050). PLI also heard Friday about media policy (see 1712080062).
The FCC Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee was a good idea, but its findings inevitably will reflect who's on the group, and state and local interests are underrepresented, NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay said Thursday at a Practising Law Institute conference. BDAC approved six sets of recommendations for speeding deployment of wireless and wireline infrastructure at its last meeting in November (see 1711090054). Other PLI news: 1712070063 and 1712070016.