Fixed Wireless Providers Urge Small Licenses in CBRS Band

Officials from 182 fixed wireless broadband providers said the FCC should retain census tracts for at least some of the priority access licenses sold as part of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band. The FCC is expected soon to take up revised rules for the band (see 1807160057). “Reject options that take census tracts off the table and propel rural broadband access backwards instead of forwards,” the companies asked Monday in docket 17-258. “Without census-tract-sized licenses, we will have virtually no ability to acquire protected spectrum in this band. That would be an intolerable outcome that would harm our rural broadband businesses and inhibit our ability to grow, but worse it would harm the millions of consumers for whom mid-band spectrum is the key to high-speed fixed broadband access.” Wireless ISPs invested in the band under the current rules "by deploying software-defined radios in the 3650-3700 MHz band that can be easily upgraded to operate in the entire 3550-3700 MHz band, reaching more rural consumers within months," the WISPs said.