FCC Democrats Expected to Oppose Parts of Pai Proposal for EBS Band
The draft order reallocating educational broadband service spectrum for 5G is controversial on the FCC eighth floor. Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks are concerned and expected to raise questions when commissioners vote Wednesday, agency and industry officials said. But the major changes to are expected to address questions Commissioner Brendan Carr is raising about the business practices of national nonprofits using EBS licenses (see 1907020072).
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Rosenworcel has been particularly strong on the EBS band and backed an incentive auction of unused 2.5 GHz band licenses, with the money to be used to address the homework gap (see 1809060049), officials said. Rosenworcel also is expected to raise concerns about whether the rules as proposed would create an auction that works. To that end, AT&T recently expressed concerns that current EBS licensees have a “comparative information advantage” in an auction and the FCC needs to make information more transparent (see 1907010028). Sprint is the only major carrier with significant holdings in the band.
Starks is uneasy about the impact of the item on current licensees and the long-term health of the program, an FCC official said.
“EBS is an artifact of a bygone era when public agencies were expected to operate their own networks,” said Richard Bennett, free-market blogger and network architect. “It’s obviously more beneficial for the public for government to trade these licenses of discounts on user fees to commercial networks that share spectrum across the larger community.”
Others defended the program.
“We are disappointed that new licensing opportunities will not be available to new local accredited educational institutions,” though Catholic Technology Network appreciates efforts to balance competing interests, said its counsel Ed Lavergne. “We are troubled by AT&T’s last-minute proposal to change the performance standards applicable to existing EBS licensees,” Lavergne said. “Such changes were not proposed and vetted in this proceeding and we oppose them. Ironically, the performance requirements proposed by AT&T would subject incumbent educational licensees to more stringent performance requirements than those applicable to incumbent commercial [broadband radio service] licensees. There is no legally supportable basis for such a disparity.”
The Wireless ISP Association “is hopeful that the commissioners will change the proposed auction rules to enable small, rural providers to have a more meaningful opportunity to participate in the 2.5 GHz auction,” emailed President Claude Aiken. “The available spectrum covers large rural areas where WISPA members have proven the ability to serve if given the right spectrum tools under the right spectrum rules.”
In a filing posted Wednesday, US Cellular said Chairman Ted Carlson met with Starks and an aide to Rosenworcel, pressing to adopt a band plan similar to WISPA's proposal (see 1907020009). That plan “presents a much better set of options than the ‘single winner takes all 100 MHz’ proposal the Commission is considering in the draft order,” the carrier said in docket 18-120. The company stressed that 2.5 GHz has good propagation characteristics and “based upon our internal engineering analysis,” a carrier needs 64 percent more cellsites using C band and 169 percent more using citizens broadband radio service spectrum to get comparable coverage to 2.5 GHz. Earlier in the week, Carlson met with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai.
Smaller carriers said the commission should auction the spectrum in smaller license blocks than the draft proposes and offer small business and rural provider bidding credits. The FCC should divide the 100-MHz block “into at least two, if not three, smaller blocks,” said Carolina West Wireless, Cellular Network Partnership, Viaero Wireless and AST Telecom.
The Wireless Communications Association asked for a tweak to the draft order, which the group said makes an important change not proposed in the NPRM. “The Draft Order would amend the definition of ‘Covered Geographic Licenses’ set forth in Section 1.907 of the Rules to include EBS,” WCA said: “Incumbent EBS licensees, as well as those who succeed in the EBS overlay auction, will for the first time, be subject to Section 1.953 of the Rules -- the discontinuance rules applicable to all Covered Geographic Licenses. Given the silence in both the NPRM and the Draft Order regarding the application of Section 1.953, the Commission should make clear whether or not it intends for Section 1.953 applies to incumbent EBS licenses.” If it does apply, defer the regulatory change until Jan. 1, 2021, to give incumbents a transition period, the group asked.