Mobile Now Hearing Focuses on Rural Broadband, Spectrum Sharing
Senate Communications Subcommittee members focused on 5G, need for rural broadband and potential for freed-up federal spectrum during a Thursday hearing on implementing the Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless Act. The Mobile Now Act was enacted as part of the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (see 1803230038). The law requires DOD and other federal agencies identify at least 255 MHz for broadband use by 2022. It requires the FCC and NTIA identify at least 100 MHz for unlicensed use below the 8 GHz band.
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Mobile Now was intended to spur freeing up wireless spectrum, and the FCC should act quickly to finalize rules for the 6 GHz band and bring C-band spectrum to auction with no delays, said Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. “Not having the right policies in place will slow our leadership in the deployment of next-generation technology, particularly in more rural areas.”
CTIA, the Wireless Infrastructure Association and Thune said more mid-band spectrum is needed for the U.S. to quickly move to 5G. “We need as much spectrum as we can get as fast as we can get it,” said WIA President Jonathan Adelstein. Freeing up mid-band spectrum would be a “stimulus” for the country, because it currently has a “mid-band deficit," said CTIA Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann. The auction process for the C band should include plans to clear the spectrum for 5G as soon as possible, Bergmann said.
Communications ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, asked Bergmann if “sloganeering” is inflating the urgency of the 5G race. “I don't want to frame this as though we are forever behind if we don't do everything the companies want us to do,” Schatz said. “We should hurry, but not be hasty.” There's a “tremendous advantage” to being first, as the U.S. saw with 4G, Bergmann said.
Schatz and Sarah Morris, director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, said funds from a C-band auction should be reinvested in rural broadband. Such an auction is a “huge opportunity” compared with the incremental increases in funding for such efforts that have been contemplated in the past, he said. The auction of a public resource should be used to close the digital divide, Morris said.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has long been “frustrated” by lack of action on rural broadband. “Years have gone by with zero progress,” he said. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's announcement this week of a $9 billion fund for rural 5G “sounds marvelous,” but Tester has doubts about the FCC's ability to execute. “We need an oversight hearing about it,” he said to Thune. “The market breaks down when it comes to rural America,” Adelstein said.
Lots of work remains to free up federal spectrum for wireless use, Adelstein said. Federal agencies “have very little incentive to share spectrum,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. Bergmann said lack of competition keeps federal agencies from using their spectrum with maximum efficiency. “There's room for reform,” Lee said. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee, expressed concern about provisions on DOD spectrum in the National Defense Authorization Act. Anything that removes jurisdiction from the FCC, NTIA or the subcommittee over portions of spectrum is concerning to the wireless industry, said Bergmann. DOD already holds “enormous amounts of prime spectrum,” Cruz said.
There's not enough unlicensed spectrum to keep up with demands of 5G, Cisco Senior Director-Technology and Spectrum Policy Mary Brown responded to Thune. Unlicensed is seeing congestion in certain networks on existing spectrum that is “the canary in the coal mine,” Brown said. Unlicensed device manufacturers are united in seeking to share spectrum in the 6 GHz band, she said.
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., questioned Adelstein and Bergmann over concerns use of the 24 GHz band for 5G would interfere with weather prediction. The FCC approached the matter “in the worst possible way” by dismissing concerns from NOAA and international officials, she said. Asked if he similarly dismissed those concerns, Adelstein responded that he defers to the FCC on the issue.