CBRS

A 3.5 GHz draft spearheaded by Commissioner Mike O'Rielly would mandate the FCC auction priority access licenses (PALs) on a countywide rather than census-tract basis. The agency would increase license terms of the citizens broadband radio service PALs to 10 years with an expectation of renewal and take other steps designed to make an eventual PAL auction a success. The FCC Tuesday posted draft items for the Oct. 23 commissioners’ meeting (see 1810010027) to address two other wireless proceedings, revise rural telco and some price-cap business data service (BDS) regulation and "modernize" cable rate regulations and broadcast filing requirements.

Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday the FCC will consider rules at the Oct. 23 commissioners' meeting allowing Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band and revising rules for the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Those were expected (see 1808310026). The FCC would post the draft items Tuesday, three weeks before the meeting. Also on tap is a draft order to update model-based support for rural telcos, media modernization on cable rate regulation and broadcast filing requirements and items on private land mobile radio (PLMR) services and enforcement.

A pending report to Congress required by the Spectrum Pipeline Act should make clear the threat to smaller entities from a notice of proposed rulemaking last year on changes to the rules for the citizens broadband radio service band, the Wireless ISP Association said in reply comments in docket 14-177. In initial comments, NTIA and others encouraged the FCC to make more spectrum bands available for 5G (see 1809110040). The FCC sought comment on the initial rules creating the shared CBRS band and on other bands that can be reallocated for broadband (see 1808100033). The NPRM “threatens to pull the rug from under stakeholders who, in reliance on the 2015 rule changes, made significant, long-term investments in preparation for launching innovative products and services -- including those targeting rural and underserved markets -- utilizing the CBRS band,” WISPA said in comments posted Thursday The FCC can rightfully report that the results of the 2015 rules were “positive and promising,” WISPA said. “But ... the Commission must also report on the chilling effect the 2017 NPRM has had on those changes.” The Utilities Technology Council said it opposes comments in the record that “seek to downplay the complexity of expanding the use of the 6 GHz band … and the associated risks of interference to the safety, security and reliability of electric, gas and water services, as well as numerous other services that depend on the 6 GHz band for mission-critical communications.” Federated Wireless said the FCC should report that CBRS “will play a critical role in providing the mid-band spectrum access needed to ensure that the United States leads the world in the race to 5G.” Federated said there's significant support in the record on the importance of that band. “It is paramount that the Commission continue its work to expeditiously authorize CBRS initial commercial deployments and issue final certifications to Spectrum Access System Administrators and Environmental Sensing Capability Operators to enable full commercialization of the CBRS band,” Federated commented.

Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, said if the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band is hung up in the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee, he hopes it’s for a good reason (see 1809240059). “If questions are raised in the IRAC, they [should] focus on why the FCC seems to want to modify CBRS licenses so that they are unaffordable and unworkable for every other industry and sector except the big mobile carriers,” Calabrese told us.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology approved special temporary authority for Nokia to demo end-to-end citizens broadband radio service to customers in Murray Hill, New Jersey. The STA will “allow the company to enhance its efforts to design and develop equipment to meet the communications needs of our customers,” Nokia said. Ericsson said the FCC approved certification for its CBRS portfolio. “The 3.5 GHz CBRS band for LTE will be used to improve wireless broadband access and performance in the U.S.,” the company said. “The shared spectrum approach adopted in the CBRS band is key to meeting service providers' network capacity challenges as data demands increase. CBRS will also open up new opportunities for private LTE operators, enterprise and cable companies, and will support mobile broadband and Fixed Wireless Access applications.”

The launch of long-anticipated sharing in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band could be slowed by interagency conflicts, industry and government officials told us. Use of the band depends in particular on Navy cooperation, but questions were said to have been raised within the powerful Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee. IRAC looks after the interests of government spectrum managers. NTIA and DOD didn’t comment Monday.

All commercial operators of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band need to be subject to spectrum access system (SAS) controlled frequency assignment, and letting any subset of operators opt out would lead to inefficient spectrum usage and undermine general authorized access (GAA) and priority access license (PAL) deployments. That was the argument NCTA and representatives from Charter Communications, Comcast, CableLabs and Midcontinent Communications brought to Wireless Chief Don Stockdale and Office of Engineering and Technology head Julius Knapp, relayed a docket 17-258 posting Thursday. The cable interests said the proposed opt-out -- with GAA users able to use any channel not occupied by an incumbent government or PAL user -- isn't consistent with Part 96 rules. The cable interests said the agency should make clear that the SAS "is the ultimate authority" in performing GAA resource allocation and that all users have to abide with SAS-controlled frequency selection.

Verizon got FCC permission to run tests using the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band in Manhattan, Brooklyn and other locations in New York. “Field tests will be conducted in a production network, in a highly controlled field environment, in order to assist in the development of commercial products,” Verizon said. “The testing will benefit the public interest by enabling the pre-commercial testing of new products outside of a lab environment but in a controlled and managed manner.” Verizon said it wants to look at radio propagation characteristics of 3.5 GHz for outdoor installations, end-to-end CBRS architecture and of inter-band carrier aggregation between 3.5 GHz and licensed bands.

The FCC should tell Congress that it, the Navy and NTIA are “falling short of the expectations that were widely held” on the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band when the Spectrum Pipeline Act became law Nov. 2, 2015, public interest groups told the FCC on two reports to Congress (see 1808100033), posted in docket 17-258 Wednesday. “Congress had every reason to believe” the band would be brought online quickly, the groups commented. “The sad fact is that in the waning months of 2018 there is far less to report back to Congress about the ‘results’ of the landmark CBRS framework than there reasonably should be.” The groups sought a quick FCC decision on sharing the 6 GHz band with unlicensed. “Adjacent to current Wi-Fi operations,” the band is “uniquely positioned to help build capacity for Wi-Fi networks as unlicensed, and Wi-Fi in particular, increases in importance as the connectivity of choice for mobile devices and local area networks.” The Open Technology Institute at New America, American Library Association, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, National Hispanic Media Coalition and Public Knowledge were among signers. These frequencies are "a unique opportunity to significantly expand the nation’s unlicensed spectrum inventory by more than 1 Gigahertz,” said Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and several others. “Opening this band is essential to addressing a growing unlicensed spectrum shortfall.” The Wi-Fi Alliance stressed the importance of the swath. “While new Wi-Fi devices are being introduced in the 5 GHz band, which is available for unlicensed operations, more mid-band spectrum is needed to meet the growing demand for data throughput capabilities offered by the next generation Wi-Fi,” the alliance said. “This spectrum shortfall has yet to be addressed.” The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council said it's “premature” to report on success or failure of the 3.5 GHz band. “Significant operation of CBRS devices is yet to occur,” NPSTC said. The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance said for CBRS to be a success, at least some priority access licenses (PALs) must be available in small geographic sizes. “Failure to do so would undermine CBRS’s promise as an innovation band, strand millions of dollars of investment already made in CBRS, and ‘rig the system’ in such a way that only those business models that prefer large license areas could acquire PALs,” the alliance said. Making the 6 GHz band available for unlicensed is also key since Wi-Fi carries more data than any other wireless technology, the alliance said.

Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google, Key Bridge Wireless and Sony filed in docket 15-319 proposals at the FCC to serve as the first spectrum access system (SAS) administrators in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. Ruckus and Fairspectrum earlier filed (see 1809100051). Federated said Monday it filed its proposal to make initial commercial deployment (ICD) in the band and to unveil a training program for certified professional installers of CBRS devices. “We have not only submitted our proposal to the FCC, we’ve done so on an astonishingly large scale, which underscores the scope of shared spectrum adoption in the wireless industry and signals true commercialization of the band right out of the gate,” blogged Federated CEO Iyad Tarazi. “It’s taken us five years to get here, and we’re not stopping now.” Google said its SAS can support service anywhere in the U.S. “For ICD, however, Google anticipates discrete deployments in various locations around the country,” the tech player said. “Locations will be selected based on the participants’ joint business interests, as well as on the need to protect Tier 1 incumbent systems.” Google said its different deployments will be used to test various conditions: “Deployment at one site may demonstrate protection of nearby [grandfathered wireless protection zones]. Deployment at another site may demonstrate protection of [fixed satellite service operators]. Yet another site may involve overlapping coverage with another SAS.”