Don't Allow Census Tract Licenses in CBRS Band, CTIA Tells O'Rielly Aide

The FCC shouldn’t offer census-tract-sized licenses as part of the licensed tier of the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, CTIA said in a meeting with Erin McGrath, aide to Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. “The current licensing scheme for the CBRS, with 74,000 separate license areas based on census tracts and an average population of 4,400 per area, is significantly smaller than the license areas used for comparable spectrum in the rest of the world,” CTIA said in docket 17-258. “Census tract licensing would have significant drawbacks, including that it would create administrative complexity for the Commission, licensees, and Spectrum Access System Administrators; raise significant interference concerns; reduce the value of the spectrum; and raise the cost of designing and deploying networks, thereby harming rural investment.”