With C-Band Auction Imminent, Questions Arise on Interest in CBRS

There’s a “tremendous amount of not just interest, but investment, by the private sector in 3.5,” Commissioner Brendan Carr told us. “The private sector is certainly betting on 3.5 as a solution.” There have always been questions, but most of those were addressed in the work done by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, said Carr, recalling the recent launch of service (see 1909180020). “You had people that were opposed to each other throughout the process on the same stage celebrating and talking about how they’re going to invest and how they’re going to use 3.5,” he said: “I’m hopeful.”

“Everyone is excited about CBRS. All spectrum is beneficial and helpful,” said T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray in an interview. T-Mobile is weighing its strategy on the PALs, he said. “I’m not going to say how hard we would or wouldn’t play” in the auction, he said: “We’re certainly interested in the spectrum.”

The PALs come with sharing and power constraints, Ray said. “There’s some reservation about the spectrum,” he said. “It’s certainly not going to be a match, 70 MHz of CBRS, for what we want to bring through on C band, which is 300 MHz-plus of much higher-power capable spectrum … without a sharing constraint. CBRS is potentially a potentially useful tool in the tool kit, but it’s no replacement” for the mid-band spectrum T-Mobile needs, he said.

Analysts disagree on the outlook for cable companies to be big players in the PALs auction. There are many questions, Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson said. “What’s the value of a PAL?” he asked. “It’s not the same as outright ownership.” Another big question is the timeline of the C-band auction and the size of the licenses offered, he said. Is the T-Mobile/Sprint/Dish Network deal “going to get done?” he asked: “If not, will Dish flip to being a spectrum seller?” Cable operators appear more focused on the general authorized access tier of CBRS than the PALs, Moffett said. “That could change, depending on cost.”

New Street’s Jonathan Chaplin told investors carriers are concerned about the power limits and shared access requirements that come with the PALs. But CBRS could be ideal for the networks built on Wi-Fi access points offered by cable operators, he said. Cable companies "won’t need much -- maybe 20 MHz," he wrote. "Spectrum is shared by all users within reach of a cell site or access point. Because Cable companies have so many access points, so densely packed, they ‘reuse’ the spectrum far more than a typical carrier network would.”

Opening the band required “years of hard, collaborative work” between industry and the government, acting NTIA Administrator Diane Rinaldo said Friday at a Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition conference. “It is also a launching pad for innovative commercial uses,” she said: “This is a band that’s well suited for providing secure, high-speed LTE service in schools, libraries and hospitals. We are eager to see how this spectrum is put into action, including the announced future support of 5G.”

Charter Communications has "done mobility trials aimed at enhancing the performance of our growing mobile service and our fixed trials have been focused on developing a rural broadband solution,” it blogged Thursday. “Fixed wireless technology using mid-band spectrum could provide wireline-like broadband connectivity to homes and businesses in more rural areas that are oftentimes harder to reach and much more costly to serve.”

"The three-tiered CBRS framework is an unprecedented leap forward in spectrum management and wireless coexistence,” said Tom Struble, tech policy manager at the R Street Institute. The PALs auction offers carriers 70 MHz of valuable mid-band spectrum, he said. “Coexisting with incumbent radar systems and unlicensed [generalized authorized access] GAA users will still present new challenges for any would-be PAL users. That could depress the demand." CBRS "is a unique framework so there's no real baseline,” he added. C-band licenses will be “clean and available nationwide” and likely “in greater demand,” Struble said.

Carriers have a given amount to spend each year on spectrum and buildout and “if there is more attractive spectrum available, then money flows to that auction,” said Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics: “My expectation for CBRS was never that high due to the way the spectrum is allocated and divided.” PALs may be of most interest in smaller cities and rural markets where “population density allows faster fixed internet and the GAAs are not that congested,” he said.

The PALs auction “is going to be interesting because the commission drew the boundaries large enough” and is “encouraging disaggregation,” said Kristian Stout, associate director at the International Center for Law & Economics: “We could see relatively efficient allocations.”

CBRS offers a potentially “powerful tool for cable operators to transition" from mobile virtual network operators, said Doug Brake, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy.