Regulatory Uncertainty Keeping WCS Offline, say WCS Licensees
Ongoing regulatory uncertainty for the wireless communications service band has left licensees unable to develop equipment standards for wireless broadband needs, said WCS licensees. That uncertainty is driven by pending petitions for reconsideration filed at the FCC by the WCS Coalition, which represents WCS licensees, and Sirius XM, they said, and those petitions may mean technical changes to the rules in the band, depending on what the FCC decides. The WCS Coalition is now seeking an extension to buildout requirements imposed when the FCC changed the WCS rules last year.
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The pending petitions mean “WCS is riddled with regulatory uncertainty,” said Paul Sinderbrand of Wilkinson Barker, who represents the WCS coalition. That uncertainty has pushed vendors more toward markets where the regulations on 2.3 GHz spectrum are already set, such as India, he said. While Sinderbrand hopes the FCC will finalize the rules by the end of the year, it isn’t clear when the FCC will respond to the petitions, he said.
NextWave is among the WCS licensees that have voiced worry about regulatory uncertainty. “Despite NextWave’s efforts to engage the global mobile broadband community and encourage the development of standards and equipment that will meet the challenges posed by our domestic WCS technical rules, there appears today to be little interest on the part of the standards setting community to turn their attention to the U.S. WCS band given the continued uncertainty” on WCS rules, said NextWave in an ex parte filing (http://xrl.us/bmewcf). “It is imperative that these critical issues are resolved as quickly as possible to give the standards setting bodies impetus to begin work.”
Sirius XM and the WCS licensees continue to battle over rules for the WCS band that neighbors Sirius XM’s spectrum. Though the FCC approved rule changes late last year and some of the rules took effect recently (CD Sept 20 p14), the long-time foes continue arguing over some of the new rules’ features. Both Sirius XM and the WCS Coalition have sought petitions for reconsideration on the FCC’s order over largely technical characteristics. Sirius XM said wireless broadband service in the WCS band would disrupt its satellite radio service.
Recently, Sirius XM voiced its opposition to the WCS Coalition’s request to push back build-out requirements in the band (CD Sept 9 p15). Sirius said the WCS Coalition was given sufficient time to build out their service based on the information they provided the agency. The WCS coalition wants its final construction deadline moved from July 21, 2017, to July 21, 2020. Sirius recently told the FCC that AT&T and NextWave, the two largest WCS licensees, “are actively shopping significant chunks of their WCS spectrum.”
Industry executives said there doesn’t seem to be much movement on the petition requests at the FCC, though it seems likely the agency is eager to put the WCS band in the win column in terms of spectrum found for wireless broadband, considering the difficulty in getting the LightSquared spectrum online. The FCC “wants to see this spectrum be used for mobile spectrum,” said an executive. “The sense is that staff is sympathetic” to concerns over the buildout requirements. The WCS proceeding may be being slowed by the increasing attention to LightSquared within the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, speculated wireless and satellite industry executives.
The WCS band, along with mobile satellite services spectrum, was identified in the National Broadband Plan as part of 300 MHz of spectrum likely to be made available for terrestrial broadband by 2015. Sirius XM and the OET didn’t comment.