NTCH continued to urge the FCC Wireless Bureau...

NTCH continued to urge the FCC Wireless Bureau to rescind Dish Network’s waiver extending the buildout of its terrestrial network and giving Dish flexibility in how it will operate its AWS-4 spectrum. In adopting service rules for the adjacent AWS-3 band, the FCC proposed to put the 2020-2025 MHz band to uplink/mobile broadband use, NTCH said in a supplement to its application for review (http://bit.ly/1teRwUf). Since that band isn’t subject to any statutory licensing deadlines, the FCC decided the public interest is best served by deferring action on that band, “without prejudice to the ultimate disposition of service rules for that band,” NTCH said. This 5 MHz of spectrum “must be put on ice pending Dish’s decision about how it wants to configure its adjacent band,” it said. Granting Dish’s waiver has directly delayed the allocation of 5 MHz of vacant broadband spectrum “for any use at all while Dish dithers about what to do with its adjacent spectrum,” NTCH said.