Carr Not Sure About Additional Orders on Wireless Infrastructure; Redl Keen on CBRS

ORLANDO -- FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has made no decision on whether to propose another wireless infrastructure order, he said after a speech at a Competitive Carriers Association conference Tuesday. NTIA Administrator David Redl said at CCA that the band most exciting to people is the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, subject of an order teed up for the October commissioners’ meeting (see 1810010027). Both said Friday’s 5G meeting at the White House (see 1809280054) was productive.

The FCC approved the second major wireless infrastructure order led by Carr at last week’s commission meeting (see 1809260029), with the initial order approved in March (see 1803220027). Carr noted he announced at last year’s CCA meeting that Chairman Ajit Pai selected him to lead agency efforts on wireless infrastructure revisions.

Carr told reporters he has made no decision on next steps, if any, on infrastructure changes. Carr said he’s not concerned that a legal challenge could delay implementation of last week’s order. “There is a tremendous amount of litigation and conflict” on the meaning of sections 253 and 332 of the Communications Act, he said. “The FCC hadn’t spoken clearly.” The judicial circuits were divided, but the FCC now has provided clarity, he said. “That’s going to clear up those conflicts.”

The commission has dealt with and won other legal challenges to past infrastructure orders, Carr said. “I’m confident on our position in this case as well.”

“Everyone is excited to see when we’ll bring CBRS to market,” Redl told us. The release of final rules on the priority access licenses is “an exciting development,” he said. NTIA needs to finalize work on spectrum access system administrators and environmental sensing capability operators, and industry needs to provide the equipment needed to do tests, he said. “That’s the thing I hear about the most … because it’s so close to coming to market.” The start of deployment depends on when NTIA tests start, he said: “I don’t think sometime in 2019 is unrealistic.”

Redl found it helpful National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and leaders in the Senate and House were at the White House 5G meeting. “If there’s only one message that everyone should take away, it’s that all parts of the U.S. government are unified in our push to be first on 5G,” Redl said in an interview. “It was really a fantastic bunch that got out to wave the flag and say, ‘We’re going to put our assets behind this as well,’” he said. “The private sector is pushing hard for it.” Leading on 5G “is going to take hard work, but America is not afraid of hard work,” he said. “Everybody is moving in the same direction.”

Carr said he was on a breakout panel on deployment at the White House summit. “I talked a lot about our infrastructure reform that we just did,” he said. “We’re all driving towards the same goal of letting the private sector win the race to 5G.”

During a panel after Carr and Redl, William Levy, Huawei vice president-sales, said the U.S. is behind on 5G. China has deployed 2 million 5G base stations and the Chinese equipment company deployed 90 percent of those, he said. “Huawei is going to be a $100 billion company this year” and invests more than $15 billion per year in R&D, he said. “Huawei doesn’t need the USA,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we’re leaving.” It had lots of partnerships with CCA members, he said. “We’re loyal to our customers.” Levy called for calmer heads as the U.S. considers the role Chinese equipment makers will play. “We can’t he shortsighted and let political jargon get in the way of good decision-making,” he said.

“Start today” on 5G and voice over LTE, said Josh Wigginton, Interop Technologies vice president-product management. “If you’re going to survive as a carrier, you need to be innovative.”