The FCC OK'd priority access licenses for 222 of the 255 bidders in the citizens broadband radio service auction. The approved long-form applications cover 17,450 licenses, the FCC said Friday. The auction ended in August with total bids of $4.59 billion (see 2008260055). Verizon and major cable operators dominated, and Dish Network came in big (see 2009020057). Long-form applications were due Sept. 17. “Five years ago, this agency recognized that our traditional spectrum auctions needed an update -- and that the 3.5 GHz band was the perfect place to start,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel: “We continue to make progress in implementing the 3.5 GHz band concept and further demonstrate US leadership in spectrum innovation.”
The FCC Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force unanimously approved an interim report Friday from the Accelerating Broadband Deployment on Unserved Agricultural Lands Working Group. The ag task force heard an update from the commission’s new Broadband Data Task Force (see 2103110050).
The FCC closed the first stage of the C-band auction Friday at $80.9 billion, not including about $13 billion in additional accelerated clearing payments (see 2101070048). All 5,684 spectrum blocks were sold. The FCC will next release the list of winning bidders. “The winning bidders, at least, perceive … tremendous value in acquiring the C-band spectrum and monetizing it over the course of the coming years, through the deployment of 5G services within an accelerated time frame,” Chairman Ajit Pai said at an American Enterprise Institute event Friday. Asked whether the costs will cause difficulties for carriers in building out their networks, Pai said that’s “a very good question” and deferred “to economists and those in finance” who monitor carrier balance sheets. Pai said offering the band through a standard spectrum auction was the right course. “After months of back-and-forth with stakeholders, we had serious concerns about the plans that were submitted for the private sale and whether it would be run competently,” he said: “In contrast, the FCC had a quarter-century track record of performing successful and transparent spectrum auctions.” S&P Global Ratings said the auction “will have a significant effect on balance sheets for U.S. wireless operators.” The nationwide average price per MHz/POP across all categories was 94.2 cents, BitPath Chief Operating Officer Sasha Javid blogged Friday. That's about 4.3 times the 21.7 cent price per MHz/POP for the spectrum sold in the citizens broadband service auction, he said. The most expensive license was for Red Oak, Iowa, which closed at $2.835 MHz/POP, and the most expensive top 20 market was San Diego, at $1.773, he said. The auction offered 280 MHz, rather than the 65 MHz in the AWS-3 auction. “This is why total gross proceeds in this C-band auction skyrocketed past the $44 billion raised in the AWS-3 auction to become the highest gross auction of all time,” Javid said. “We have heard the term ‘beachfront’ used to describe various bands over the last several years," wrote Wiley’s Ari Meltzer. "The market has spoken, and it has confirmed that mid-band has the view and the amenities.” The auction “showcased the critical need of the mobile wireless industry to have access to an important portfolio of spectrum to support connectivity for citizens, the economy, and U.S. technology leadership,” said Chris Pearson, president of 5G Americas. “This record-breaking spectrum auction demonstrates the wireless industry’s commitment to leading the emerging 5G economy and underscores the importance of developing a robust pipeline of spectrum auctions,” said CTIA President Meredith Baker.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is expected to tee up several items for a busy Jan. 13 open meeting, his last on the commission, industry and FCC officials said. The meeting is expected to be 5G heavy, including a notice on a 2.5 GHz auction and possibly a 3.45-3.55 GHz and 12 GHz item. Also likely, Pai could use the meeting to complete action on the latest Communications Act Section 706 report (see 2012160051) and other items he wants to finalize as chairman. Pai’s blog on the meeting is due Tuesday, with draft items to be posted Wednesday.
The upcoming shift to a 2-2 split FCC at the start of President-elect Joe Biden’s administration doesn’t necessarily have to mean total gridlock, as those opposed to Senate confirmation of Nathan Simington as commissioner are forecasting, officials and FCC observers told us. They do believe FCC Democrats’ ability to move on big-ticket policy priorities, like bringing back the rescinded 2015 net neutrality rules, will be hindered until the Senate confirms Biden’s to-be-named nominee for the seat held by Chairman Ajit Pai. The Senate confirmed Simington Tuesday with unanimous Republican support and similarly uniform Democratic opposition (see 2012080067).
Nathan Simington was confirmed to the FCC Tuesday after a largely muted Senate floor debate. Senate Democrats and groups opposed to Simington in the lead-up to the vote continued to raise concerns about the 2-2 commission deadlock that will result from his confirmation, once Chairman Ajit Pai leaves Jan. 20 (see 2011300032). Many also cited the FCC’s proposed proceeding on its Communications Decency Act Section 230 interpretation, a matter critics believe Simington should recuse himself from because he worked on NTIA’s petition for the rulemaking (see 2011100070).
T-Mobile added a company record 2 million postpaid subscribers in Q3 to bring its customer rolls to 100 million, the carrier said Thursday. That includes 689,000 postpaid phone net adds. The carrier reported $341 million in COVID-19-related expenses and $352 million in free cash flow, headed into upcoming FCC spectrum auctions. Free cash flow was $1.1 billion a year ago. The U.S. “has never seen anything like this network build,” CEO Mike Sievert said on a financial call, noting the company moved further ahead of AT&T on total customers. T-Mobile plans to offer 5G nationwide using its 2.5 GHz spectrum by the end of next year, he said. The band has both “massive capacity and … reach, measured in miles from our towers,” he said. T-Mobile’s low-band network already covers 270 million people, he said. “T-Mobile’s momentum has continued to accelerate quarter after quarter, as we profitably take share and outpace the competition,” he said: “We surprised the skeptics, and the optimists, yet again. … We’re working hard to go big and to go fast.” The COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges “with a much slower switching environment than a year ago,” Sievert said. T-Mobile reported $1.2 billion in earnings on revenue of $19.3 billion. That compares with $870 million and $11 billion a year ago, before the Sprint buy closed. Some 79.7 million subscribers had post-paid and 20.6 million prepaid plans. Postpaid churn was 0.9%, a slight increase over the first two quarters of the year. T-Mobile “remains highly confident” it will deliver $43 billion of synergies from the Sprint deal, with $1.2 billion this year and more than twice that likely next year. Sievert credited avoided site builds and a streamlined marketing push. T-Mobile is also consolidating back office operations. It shut off the Sprint brand for new customer sales at the start of August.
House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, touted the Rural Connectivity Advancement Program Act (HR-7972/S-4015), during a Thursday foreign policy event, as one of a “broad range” of GOP-led legislative proposals to improve broadband connectivity. HR-7972/S-4015 would set aside 10% of the net proceeds from FCC spectrum auctions through Sept. 30, 2022, for broadband buildout (see 2006180062). The measure would help ensure “we have those dollars available for that buildout,” Latta said. He noted that committee Republicans aimed to reduce regulatory barriers to broadband buildout (see 2006250068). The private sector said “’we're not against regulations, just give us regulations we can live with,’” Latta said. “They've invested about $1.7 trillion out there” in rural areas on broadband. Lawmakers need to ensure “we get it out to these rural areas,” especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The C-band auction and compensating satellite operators for leaving the spectrum are things the FCC could come to regret as a negative template for future spectrum auctions, said Philip Murphy, legislative director to House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa. The auction starts Dec. 8.
NTIA, working with DOD, is pushing ahead on a spectrum sharing system going beyond what's possible in the nascent citizens broadband radio service, said Charles Cooper, associate administrator of the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management, at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Friday. NTIA is tentatively calling it “incumbent informing capability,” or ICC, and it’s being developed in coordination with the Defense Information Systems Agency, he said.