Pai, Returning From India Trip, to Deal With C-Band Issues Before Friday's FCC Vote
With an FCC vote Friday, more filings posted Tuesday in docket 18-122 as parties made closing arguments for changes to C-band auction rules. Chairman Ajit Pai has been in India with President Donald Trump. Pai is on his way back to the U.S. as planned to deal with late changes, industry and FCC officials told us. The sunshine period barring further lobbying took effect Friday. A key Hill lawmaker on C-band issues said he's resigned to the FCC's approach but will continue to pursue legislation that would institute a competing plan.
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Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy, R-La., told us he’s now resigned to likely FCC approval Friday of Pai’s C-band proposal but isn’t backing off from pushing to reverse the expected decision. Kennedy before the Presidents' Day recess urged the FCC to delay its vote (see 2002130053). “The FCC’s going to do what it’s going to do Friday, but it doesn’t make any difference because we can pass a bill” mandating a different plan for allocating auction proceeds up until the day of the sale, the senator said now. “They’ve got to follow our directions” regardless of when Congress legislates on the auction.
Kennedy said he hasn’t yet been able to speak with Trump again about his concerns with Pai’s proposed allocation of proceeds for relocation and incentive payments to C-band incumbents, “but I will” soon. The lawmaker spoke with Trump before Pai’s November decision to back a public C-band auction (see 1911180065), which some believe influenced Pai’s process. “Once people realize how much taxpayer money that could be spent on rural broadband is being given away” to satellite companies, “you’ll see Congress act,” Kennedy predicted. “We’re going to have a bunch of hearings” on the FCC’s plans in the coming weeks. He’s been planning additional C-band panels to supplement ones he held late last year (see 2001090021). He urged the agency to “grow some oranges and start negotiating like it were their money instead of just taxpayer money” at stake.
Telesat and SES (see 2002210046) oppose Intelsat's claims for a bigger share of accelerated relocation payments (see 2002200016). They said C-Band Alliance members agreed to allocations among themselves based on relative contributions to clearing the spectrum, and the clearing work and each satellite operator's relative contributions are unchanged. Thus the relative percentage interests of the operators in those payments should be unchanged, they said. The other satellite companies said Intelsat is making "a meritless effort to escape its repeated prior agreements regarding the operators’ relative contributions to accelerated clearing" and CBA wasn't just about promoting a private market approach but also contemplated a public auction framework.
In meetings with Pai, Commissioner Brendan Carr, and aides to Commissioners Mike O'Rielly, Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks and with Wireless and International bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology staffers, SES CEO Steve Collar and Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg said CBA worked closely with the agency to develop a consensus on the transition framework. That's reflected in the draft order and it's upsetting that Intelsat would change direction, they said (see here, here and here). Joining some of the meetings was SES adviser David Redl of Salt Point Strategies, formerly NTIA administrator.
Public interest groups told aides to Pai and Starks they're disappointed the FCC isn’t addressing sharing unused spectrum in the upper portion of the band allocated to fixed-satellite service operators for “high-capacity,” point-to-multipoint fixed wireless in rural and remote areas. “While we acknowledged that the Commission might reasonably conclude that authorizing coordinated sharing of unused spectrum in C-band at this time might risk complicating the transition for FSS incumbents, we urged that the draft be clarified to make plain that such sharing could be feasible in the future,” said New America’s Open Technology Institute, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society and Public Knowledge.
Verizon had a call with Wireless Bureau and OET staff urging out-of-band emission limits consistent with 3rd Generation Partnership Project standards (see 2002210046). “The FCC asked if the combination of Part 27 and Part 30 rules might more simply accomplish the objective of a [user equipment] emissions mask that facilitates 3GPP band n77 deployment in the United States,” the carrier said. “While this approach may seem appealing, it would fail to deliver a … mask that is no more stringent than 3GPP.”
America's Communications Association told aides to Pai and Starks the FCC should require a centralized approach on the C-band transition. “Most MVPD earth station users receive hundreds of satellite transmissions from two satellite operators over as many as a dozen satellite antennas,” ACA said. “MVPDs do not typically have any direct contractual relationship with these satellite operators; rather, they contract individually with each of the dozens of MVPD programmers whose video feeds they receive over the C-band. … A decentralized approach to the transition for these users will surely lead to missteps and delays.”