O'Rielly Still Believes FCC Must Offer Larger Licenses in CBRS Band

Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, who has led the FCC push to change 3.5 GHz communications broadband radio service rules, said Tuesday he's not convinced the agency should significantly reduce the geographic size of the priority access licenses (PALs) that will be sold in an auction. It was always clear the 3.5 GHz band has “great potential, but I do not believe we have the solution quite right yet,” said Joan Marsh, chief regulatory and state external affairs officer at AT&T, which held the event.

The 3.5 GHz band was long seen as offering only “scraps,” a “pipe dream band,” O’Rielly said. But the FCC devised an innovative three-tier sharing system, he said. The FCC and industry have done “yeoman’s work,” getting the band ready, he said. Many see the 3.5 GHz band as “the key roaming band for 5G,” O’Rielly said.

Most commenters on proposed changes to rules for the PALs agree on, or at least can accept, the need for longer license terms, an expectation of renewability and the need to make more PALs available (see 1801300018), O’Rielly said. The size of the PALs remains contentious, he said. The FCC agreed to license the PALs on a census-tract basis, but he noted that in its history, the FCC has auctioned a total of 44,000 licenses. “Auctioning half a million licenses could be administratively burdensome on both the commission and providers,” O’Rielly said. “Such small license areas may also cause significant interference complications for entities trying to build over a larger area.” Washington, D.C., has 179 census tracts, New York City more than 2,100, he said.

O’Rielly sees signs of possible compromise, including proposals to offer different license sizes in urban and rural areas (see 1801310067). “This is generally constructive,” he said. “While everyone might not get what they want, in the end, my goal is to ensure that as many companies are interested in participating in the 3.5 GHz spectrum auction and will soon be able to offer services to consumers.”

O’Rielly noted he had criticized the FCC’s slow progress in approving the environmental sensing capability (ESC) operators who will be critical to the band. Progress has been made on the ESCs and the regulator will soon approve first-wave applicants, though testing remains, he said. “While there is still a long way to go, this is a huge step.” The ESC is integral to use of the band in coastal areas, he said.

O’Rielly said the FCC should put more focus on other mid-band spectrum, with an eye on 5G. Opening the 3.7-4.2 GHz band for commercial use has to be an FCC focus since much of the band will be part of other 5G deployments outside the U.S., he said. The agency should release an NPRM this summer so it can examine its options, he said. The FCC also should explore spectrum between 3100 and 3550 MHz for 5G, particularly the 3.4 GHz band, he said. If spectrum in these bands is aggregated, “we can create a solid spectrum footprint in the midband for 5G,” he said. The FCC later posted his remarks.

Advocates of small license sizes for the PALs weren't featured at the forum, but Alex Phillips, CEO of a wireless ISP in Harrisonburg, Virginia, asked from the audience why carriers can’t aggregate smaller licenses. “I don’t buy the idea that it simplifies the process,” Phillips said. “I’ve been around since the first computers were out and I know how fast they are today and managing that number of units is nothing.”

Elizabethtown, Kentucky, illustrates the problem with census-tract licensing, responded Paul Anuszkiewicz, CTIA vice president-spectrum planning. To serve just that area, a carrier would have to buy 82 PALs, he said. A larger license size “uncomplicates the world,” he said. In the West in particular, lots of WISPs cover very large areas, he said. “Is that helpful?” Anuszkiewicz asked. “Honestly, no,” Phillips replied.

The spectrum world has changed since 2012 when the FCC released the initial 3.5 GHz NPRM, said Dean Brenner, Qualcomm senior vice president-government affairs. “Here’s one constant -- everyone wants better, faster mobile broadband and we can use this spectrum to provide that,” Brenner said. “The usage, the demand, continues to be off the charts.” With the Winter Olympics, NBC streamed more data in the first five days than in the entire 2014 games -- 445 million minutes of coverage, he said.

The band will continue to be used by Navy radar, protected by exclusion zones, the initial focus of the FCC when it devised the 3.5 GHz rules. Tom Taylor of the Department of Defense Spectrum Office said the work on the band is groundbreaking: “The model that we’re setting here is not only innovative from a commercial perspective, but it’s innovative in that we’re coming to trusted engineering first. That trusted engineering, working across the table to come to sound solutions [is] enabling us to move forward.”