In an updated report, Analysys Mason said the U.S. “continues to trail leading countries in available licensed mid-band spectrum, a trend expected to continue for the foreseeable future if no action is taken,” said CTIA, which commissioned the report released Tuesday: “The U.S. lags the top three studied nations -- Japan, the United Kingdom and France -- by 530 MHz on average. In five years, the U.S. will continue to lag, trailing the future top three countries by 415 MHz on average.” The report stresses the need for licensed spectrum in the 3-7 GHz range. It notes that only two countries plan to make more unlicensed spectrum available in the next five years and both will continue to trail the U.S. “The U.S. is also an outlier as the only country to make unlicensed spectrum available between 3.3 GHz and 4.2 GHz,” the analysis said. The U.S. targeted 6 GHz for unlicensed use, and China is considering licensing the band. “The FCC made great progress with recent mid-band spectrum auctions, but this study shows there is more work to be done,” said CTIA President Meredith Baker.
Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., led filing Thursday of the Digital Equity Foundation Act to create a nonprofit foundation to disburse funding for digital equity, inclusion and literacy projects and support related activities. The measure mirrors parts of an earlier Airwaves for Equity proposal to endow a digital equity foundation using future FCC spectrum auction revenue (see 2202230058) but doesn’t mention a specific funding source. The foundation would “supplement, but not supplant,” existing NTIA and FCC connectivity funding programs, including ones Congress created via the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Lujan’s office cited the success of other congressionally established nonprofits, saying they were a way of leveraging public-private partnerships. “Critically, this legislation also ensures” the decision-makers who created the nonprofit “will consist of experts that reflect the diverse communities that are in need of these investments, who will work closely with federal agencies to support and uplift digital equity-focused programs,” Lujan said. “This legislation will jumpstart us down the road to lasting digital equity and inclusion nationwide,” Matsui said. Without “sustained investments in digital adoption and inclusion efforts at the community level, the huge new investments in broadband infrastructure and affordability won’t close the digital divide,” said New America’s Open Technology Institute Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese: “A Digital Equity Foundation dedicated to this work and, if possible, funded by future spectrum auctions, will provide a sustainable way to address the broadband adoption side of the digital divide.” Lujan’s office cited support from 10 other public interest groups, including the American Library Association, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Public Knowledge and the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition.
Additional money to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program and a short-term extension of the FCC’s expiring spectrum auction authority both remain under consideration as additions to a planned continuing resolution to extend federal appropriations past Sept. 30, but talks remain highly fluid, lawmakers and lobbyists told us last week. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and other committee leaders left open the possibility of a short-term auction authority renewal as a stopgap, telling us they hadn’t reached a deal during the August recess on a broader spectrum legislative package.
Spectrum auctions usually don’t have clear winners, but T-Mobile looks like it won the 2.5 GHz auction, MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett told investors. The auction ended Monday with net proceeds of $427.8 million (see 2208290043). “While we won’t know for sure who ‘won’ the licenses in question for another week or so, it is universally assumed that T-Mobile was far and away the auction’s principal buyer,” Moffett said: It's “the only U.S. company that uses 2.5 GHz spectrum (2.5 GHz is the backbone spectrum band of their 5G network), and the licenses at auction were best seen as the ‘holes in the Swiss cheese’ of T-Mobile’s otherwise national 2.5 GHz footprint. There was a great deal of spectrum here for sale, but it wasn’t geographically contiguous, and thus it would be difficult for anyone other than T-Mobile to use it.” Few speculators likely jumped in, he said. “If there is but one true exit -- i.e., to sell to T-Mobile -- then bidding more than T-Mobile was willing to pay would seem an ill-advised strategy.” The spectrum adds to T-Mobile’s “already-large spectrum advantage versus Verizon and AT&T” at a “much lower price than had been expected,” he said. “We congratulate the FCC on completing the 2.5 GHz auction, which will help enhance 5G coverage across the country,” emailed CTIA Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann: “We look forward to working with Congress, the FCC and the Administration to identify the next 5G auction of licensed spectrum that will be critical to maintaining our position as the world’s innovation hub and leader of the growing 5G economy.”
Backers of a bid to fully fund the FCC’s Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program believe appropriations legislation, including a likely continuing resolution to extend federal payments past Sept. 30, is the most viable vehicle for formally allocating the additional money, due to concerns about delayed action on the House-passed (see 2207280052) Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624). Senate Commerce Committee leaders are grappling during the August recess with how to respond to HR-7624, which would allocate some proceeds from a proposed auction of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band for rip and replace reimbursements, given disagreements on spectrum policy priorities (see 2208090001).
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and other panel leaders are hopeful they can use the August recess to negotiate a deal on a spectrum legislative package before Congress returns after Labor Day, or at least decide whether to seek a stopgap FCC spectrum auction authority renewal in hopes of reaching a consensus later. Panel Democrats and Republicans divided along party lines (see 2208020076) during a Communications Subcommittee hearing last week on whether they back the 18-month authority extension included in the House-passed Spectrum Innovation Act (HR-7624).
The FCC’s notice of inquiry on offshore spectrum issues is expected to be approved 4-0 at the commissioners' meeting Wednesday with few changes to the draft circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2205180065), industry and FCC officials said. Industry experts said it makes sense for the FCC to ask questions, but market interest in licenses for offshore areas is likely to be low.
Wiley’s Anna Gomez, former acting NTIA administrator, backed the Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act (HR-7783) and two NTIA-focused spectrum bills in written testimony ahead of a Tuesday House Communications Subcommittee hearing (see 2205170081). HR-7783 is one of five wireless-focused bills House Communications will examine during the Tuesday hearing. The others are: the Ensuring Phone and Internet Access for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Recipients Act (HR-4275), the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences Codification Act (HR-4990), the Simplifying Management, Reallocation and Transfer of Spectrum Act (HR-5486), and the Safe Connections Act (HR-7132). The partly virtual hearing will begin at 11 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.
House Communications Subcommittee leaders appear set on advancing the recently filed Extending America’s Spectrum Auction Leadership Act (HR-7783) as their preference for renewing the FCC’s auction authority, before a planned Tuesday hearing (see 2205170081), but there’s more uncertainty about whether they will be willing to attach related measures before it heads to the floor. Senate Commerce Committee leaders are tentative about HR-7783’s proposal to extend the FCC’s auction authority for 18 months to March 31, 2024, and some policy stakeholders told us they outright oppose such a short extension. The FCC's current auction authority expires Sept. 30.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel backed making more spectrum available for 5G but didn’t discuss any additional target bands during remarks to a CTIA conference that were posted in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. “We need to replenish the spectrum pipeline for new commercial innovation if we want to continue to lead the world in Wireless,” Rosenworcel said: “We also need to be creative. I think that creativity is in our national DNA. Let’s speculate that’s what Marconi saw here, too. Because remember that spectrum auctions, incentive auctions, unlicensed authorization, and dynamic spectrum access systems all got their start in the United States. We’ve turned spectrum scarcity into abundance before. We can do it again.” Rosenworcel also noted the importance of open radio access networks: “Open and interoperable equipment is the future, and we are working to ensure that Open RAN technology is being built here and now.”