Wireless Spectrum Auctions

The FCC should use Basic Trading Areas (BTAs) as the geographic area for organizing transitions to the new band plan at 2.5 GHZ, Wireless Communications Assn. International (WCA)recommended. During an ex parte meeting with FCC officials last week, WCA stressed that since a 1996 FCC decision to auction Multipoint Distribution Service authorizations based on BTAs, “the industry has structured around BTA boundaries more than any other geographic area.” Utilizing any other units for transitions would “cause proponents to transition regions that are larger than necessary to achieve interference- free service,” the group said. WCA also said it doesn’t back auctioning cancelled BRS BTA authorizations based on any other unit, and predicted “the educational community would likely resist utilizing larger geographic units” for the EBS white space auction because most educational activities are local. But AWS said it’s ambivalent about “the geographic areas to be used for re-auction of BRS spectrum returned to the FCC in exchange for bidding credits or assistance in digitizing and migrating legacy analog video services to the Middle Band Segment (MBS).” WCA also: (1) Opposes EBS members’ proposals to stay the geographic licensing rules pending complete transition to the new band plan. (2) Supports imposition of the traditional Part 27 “substantial service” requirement and safe harbors, plus new rural safe harbors on BRS and EBS licensees under the new regulatory regime.

NTCA and Alcatel joined in supporting a proposal by T-Mobile and the Rural Telecom Group (TRG) to revise the band plan for advanced wireless services (AWS) in the 1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2155 MHz bands (CD March 15 p8). The NTCA agreed with proponents that reconfiguring the 30 MHz E Block AWS license block to create a 6th AWS license block would promote competition in all areas, including rural and underserved zones. “Auction rules that create large geographic licensing territories make it nearly impossible for rural carriers to gain access to affordable licenses,” NTCA said: “Licensing some of the AWS spectrum according to the smaller RSA/MSA geographic areas ensures licensees are not forced to acquire more spectrum than they need and will encourage more small and rural carrier participating in the auction.” Alcatel agreed, saying the proposed band plan would benefit not only smaller carriers but also larger ones, by giving them “the ability to aggregate licenses at auction or in the secondary market if their business plans or customer demands justify the usage.” The T-Mobile/RTG proposal has support from U.S. Cellular, Ericsson, Nokia and SunCom Wireless. Cingular has said it supports only the parts of the proposal that would convert the D Block into a 20 MHz license by taking 10 MHz of spectrum from the E Block, and retain the RCA/MSA designation. FCC Chmn. Martin’s aide, Sam Feder, told the FCBA Fri. he expects to get a draft order from the Wireless Bureau this week addressing petitions for reconsideration of the AWS band plan.

Nokia and SunCom Wireless backed a proposal by T- Mobile and Rural Telecom Group (RTG) to revise the band plan for advanced wireless services (AWS) in the 1710-1755 and 2110-2155 MHz bands (CD March 15 p8). The proposal would have the FCC divide the 30 MHz E-Block (1740-1755 MHz paired with 2140-2155 MHz) licenses into 3 parts, incorporating them into a modified AWS band plan. It would retain the A, B and C Blocks (1710-1735 MHz paired with 2110-2135 MHz) as originally proposed in the FCC order and consistent with the T-Mobile-RTG proposal. Nokia had supported a band plan of either 3 licenses of 2x15 MHz or 3 licenses of 2x10 MHz and one license of 2x15 MHz. But it told the FCC last week “in light of today’s current market conditions, Nokia can support a band plan that does not contain any 30 MHz blocks.” SunCom Wireless agreed, saying “the Commission’s existing AWS E-Block should be adapted to reflect changed market conditions.” The modified band plan would create “realistic opportunities for regional and local carriers operating in smaller and underserved markets to offer their subscribers new advanced services,” it said. SunCom “strongly” disagreed with some arguments by Cingular (CD May 16 p5), which opposed T-Mobile-RTG’s proposed division of a 20 MHz block of spectrum in the existing E Block into two 10 MHz paired blocks to be licensed, respectively, on an REAG and an EA basis. Cingular expressed concern that this modification of the existing E Block would result in inefficient use of spectrum and increased interference, saying 2x10 MHz blocks are the minimum required to support current AWS technologies. “Even if Cingular is correct in suggesting that some higher bandwidth, wireless broadband applications require such wide channels, these high bandwidth applications are not the only valuable AWS services that carriers may offer,” SunCom said. It and other regional and rural wireless carriers could be “foreclosed” from offering advanced voice and data services if most of the licenses available are “unaffordable and uneconomical for all but the largest carriers,” SunCom said. According to SunCom, Cingular failed to explain why or how division of the existing E Block into 10 MHz licenses would exacerbate interference: “There should be no meaningful difference between the engineering practices required under the existing band plan or the joint proposal’s modified plan to protect against both in-band and out-of-band interference.” Responding to a Cingular statement that the proposed E and F Blocks’ location at the top of the bands and the geographic designations proposed by T-Mobile and RTG would make it difficult to aggregate noncontiguous blocks in the AWS bands, SunCom said: “The serious obstacles that a wide variety of new and incumbent carriers would face in the absence of affordable spectrum blocks far outweigh any minor difficulties that nationwide carriers may encounter in aggregating spectrum under the flexible, modified band plan suggested in the joint proposal, especially given the large regional 20 MHz A and B Blocks already available under the Commission’s proposal.” The T-Mobile/RTG proposal also has support from U.S. Cellular and Ericsson. Cingular has said it supports parts of the proposal that would convert the D block into a 20 MHz license by taking 10 MHz of spectrum from the E Block, and retain the RCA/MSA designation. Meanwhile, in meetings with FCC officials, T-Mobile has been pushing for “expeditious” action on its proposal, stressing that “the wireless market and U.S. consumers will benefit substantially if the AWS spectrum is auctioned as early as possible in 2006.”

Budget pressures are among forces prompting a proposed Dec. 31, 2008, transition date in a House Commerce Committee draft bill (CD May 23 p1), as Congress eyes a potential windfall from spectrum auction, sources familiar with the process said. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has advised the committee to hold the 700 MHz auction in 2008 so as not to compete with a 3G auction in June 2006.

The FCC is expected at its June 9 meeting to act on petitions seeking reconsideration of the Commission’s Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) order, according to sources. It’s also expected to launch an NPRM seeking comment on how the FCC should change its competitive bidding rules to comply with the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act.

Incumbent providers operating in the 900 MHz band urged the FCC to ensure “sufficient” protection for their systems from harmful interference if the Commission moves forward with a proposal to facilitate the band’s more flexible use. They want the agency to ensure that licensees don’t face interference such as that which required the remedies adopted in the 800 MHz interference proceeding. The incumbents, which are site-specific licensees, generally opposed the geographic market area licensing the FCC proposed. They said it would cause commercial systems to proliferate at the expense of continued licensing of critical infrastructure, industrial and land transportation systems.

Two groups of prominent telecom, wireless and technology companies this week separately endorsed a hard deadline for DTV transition, igniting a debate with NAB. A new High Tech DTV Coalition unveiled Wed. and led by Janice Obuchowski, former NTIA dir. and ambassador to the World Radio Conference, backs House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton’s (R-Tex.) goal of a firm deadline. Without specifying a date, Obuchowski said her group stands behind Barton. Barton, now pushing a Dec. 31, 2006, deadline, has said he could accept a “slight” compromise. “We want the deadline to be as soon as practicable,” said coalition member Peter Pitsch of Intel.

The wireless industry urged the FCC in comments to provide regulatory certainty as it creates a new regulatory framework for wireless broadband services. Commenters generally supported the FCC Wireless Broadband Access Task Force report recommendations released in Feb. (CD Feb 11 p8), calling them a step in the right direction. But some expressed concern that the report failed to make firm recommendations regarding issues such as jurisdiction. They said the Commission should take further steps before carrying out the recommendations.

The FCC’s Wireless Broadband Access Task Force Report overlooks or underestimates obstacles rural providers face in seeking to deploy wireless broadband, NTCA told the FCC in comments Fri. Without regulatory intervention, ubiquitous broadband wireless deployment will never become a reality in rural America, NTCA said. Hailing the Task Force for seeing how wireless broadband could help rural America, NTCA nonetheless said the body’s report lacks specific recommendations for getting more licensed spectrum into small rural carriers’ hands. It’s hard for small providers to get licensed spectrum at auctions, and secondary markets aren’t effective, the group said. But by lessening some regulatory constraints “the FCC could make secondary markets a viable alternative for rural carriers.” Lack of access to licensed spectrum forces some members to use unlicensed spectrum to serve customers, NTCA said, calling that tack “far from an ideal solution” despite its low cost. NTCA urged a “keep what you use” approach to spectrum licensing, under which regulations would force large spectrum licensees to part with spectrum left unused after they have had sufficient time to build out the licensed territory. “Unless the FCC takes further steps to facilitate rural carriers’ efforts to gain access to licensed spectrum,” the wireless broadband’s promise for rural America “will remain largely unkept,” NTCA said. Separately, Microsoft called the report “an excellent statement of broadband wireless’ potential and the Commission policies that will encourage private industry to realize that potential,” but said in “one critical respect” the report didn’t go far enough. Before implementing the report, the FCC should “bring the distinction between low- [below 1 GHz] and high-frequency spectrum to the foreground by emphasizing that access to low-frequency spectrum is essential to the continued growth of the broadband wireless industry,” Microsoft said. Granting access to that spectrum would “remove a significant obstacle, lowering the cost of building wireless broadband networks by 50% or more.” Mobile Satellite Ventures urged the FCC to support the report recommendations and “foster hybrid satellite/terrestrial service… in encouraging the development of the high- speed communications and broadband market.” The task force report was released at the Commission Feb. meeting (CD Feb 11 p8). More comments were expected to be filed at our deadline.

Opponents of a proposed Sprint-Nextel merger warned the FCC the companies tried to divert its attention from key issues in a reply to oppositions last week (CD April 13 p4). Sprint and Nextel said most objections didn’t relate to their merger review and should be addressed elsewhere, if at all. But opponents strongly disagreed, citing excessive market concentration, roaming agreements, spectrum aggregation and spin-off of the Sprint local wireline business as major concerns.