Clyburn, Rosenworcel Have Questions on Proposal to Revise 3.5 GHz Rules

Although dissents on NPRMs aren’t common, FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel continue to have big questions on the pending 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service NPRM, set for a vote Oct. 24, industry and agency officials said. CBRS rule changes primarily affect only one of the three tiers of the FCC’s sharing plan for the band, the priority access license (PAL) tier. Under the sharing plan, federal incumbents, followed by PAL holders and then general access users, would have top priority to use the spectrum.

The biggest sticking point has been the size of the PALs. Under the rules developed during the Obama administration, the FCC would auction more than 500,000 PALs at the census-tract level. The NPRM examines moving instead to adopt larger license sizes, though it asks questions about alternative plans (see 1710030059). The draft NPRM also proposes 10-year license terms for the PALs, rather than three-year licenses in the current rules, and an expectation the licenses will be renewed.

“We are on course right now to build a bold wireless future with a creative and innovative framework in the 3.5 GHz band,” Rosenworcel said in an email. “Halting the progress we have already made with yet another round of comment is foolhardy. It’s especially disappointing when this rulemaking does little more than offer up stale ideas from the policy past.”

Both Democratic commissioners “certainly seem opposed to reopening the CBRS rules,” said a lawyer who favors keeping current rules. “Both volunteered that large licensing areas are their greatest concern, since this will exclude both rural wireless ISPs and the sort of innovative use cases that companies such as General Electric and Ruckus have been developing.”

Many CBRS advocates hope the FCC won't change rules for the 3.5 GHz band. “Our incumbency issues in the U.S. are different from the rest of the world, so trying to turn this into a harmonized, traditional licensed mobile band is not a viable plan,” said Andrew Clegg, spectrum engineering lead at Alphabet Access. “Proposed modifications to CBRS licenses would drive up the cost of licenses, possibly dramatically, and put them out of the reach of many innovators and rural broadband providers.”

Ruckus Wireless "was discouraged by a number of the proposed changes to the PAL tier, which do not acknowledge the many compelling arguments to preserve priority access for vertical industries and localized uses,” said Dave Wright, director-regulatory affairs and network standards. “Language in the NPRM appears to leave room for a compromise outcome in regard to PAL coverage areas, but interested parties will need to make their requirements known to the commission, along with the economic impacts of losing access to affordable, predictable spectrum. A wholesale change to PEAs, with 10-year, renewable terms would undo the innovation enabled by the current framework, and simply perpetuate the longstanding licensed/unlicensed duality in a CBRS context.”

Iyad Tarazi, CEO of Federated Wireless, said the most important thing is that the FCC move forward to launch use of the 3.5 GHz band. “There are multiple views on the PAL in terms of size and longevity and ultimately there are good negotiations going on,” he said. “I can make the case for the carriers. I can make the case for the Googles.” The important thing is not to delay launch for all the likely general access users and “not to harm the size of ecosystem and the number of parties interested,” Tarazi said. “I haven’t seen extreme positions” from this FCC, he said. “They seem to be open to finding the right dialogue, to find the right compromise.”

The 3.5 GHz band is “a low-entry testbed to stimulate experimentation and possibly even early monetization or part of the workhorse spectrum that delivers broadband connectivity on a large scale,” said Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics. The FCC needs to approve longer license terms and make other changes to the PALs to make them viable, he said. “Nobody in their right mind would build their long-term business model on spectrum that they know they have to surrender again in three years.”