The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee apparently disappeared after 14 years, said to be caught up in administration politics. Former members and government officials said NTIA Administrator David Redl isn’t to blame. Redl had written a list of questions for a new CSMAC and sent names to the Commerce Department months ago, where the list ran into broader political concerns, the officials said. Redl declined to comment. Meanwhile, the administration is working on a comprehensive, long-term national spectrum strategy (see 1810250018).

House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., separately insisted they're actively pursuing their Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (Airwaves) Act. Filed last Congress, it aims to identify spectrum for unlicensed use and free up mid-band spectrum for wireless industry purchase via an FCC auction (see 1802070054). Some expected refiling this month, but New Street Research contends reintroduction now appears indefinitely delayed (see 1903120083). “We're just trying to get [the Airwaves Act] perfected,” Gardner told us. “We've got some final negotiations to go through before we get it introduced,” but “we're making good progress.” Reintroduction of the Airwaves Act remains a priority, but the push for House passage of the Save the Internet Act net neutrality bill (HR-1644) took precedence recently, Doyle told reporters. The 35-day partial government shutdown that ended in January also delayed some telecom policy priorities, including FCC oversight plans (see 1903270045), Doyle said. “We're playing catch-up,” but “we're talking.”

Though it's not clear how much midband spectrum 5G will require, the U.S. is clearly lagging compared with midband availability in other nations, said CTIA President Meredith Baker at a Media Institute event Wednesday. When we asked her what's needed at minimum, she said the possibility of 180 MHz from the C band, as proposed by the C-Band Alliance (CBA), and 70 MHz from the 3.5 GHz band would still leave the U.S. 50 MHz shy of the global average of what other nations have dedicated to 5G.

An incentive auction in the 2.5 GHz educational broadband service band would maximize the educational value of the spectrum “by converting the leasing scheme’s implicit and inefficient subsidy into an explicit needs-based subsidy for educational broadband,” Tech Knowledge said Wednesday. EBS licensees have less experience managing spectrum than wireless providers, the group said. Providing direct subsidies makes more sense than the current regime, Tech Knowledge said. “In exchange for commercial use of its spectrum, a school board whose FCC license would be worth up to $157 million at auction is currently receiving an educational use benefit that amounts to $0.02 per K-12 student per month that can only be used to buy retail wireless broadband services from Sprint."

Intel representatives told the FCC a market-based approach for the C-band is the best course and would get mid-band spectrum in play more quickly for 5G. “Because it is voluntary, it solves the holdout problem, avoids contentious disputes with the incumbents and harnesses competitive market forces to make the many difficult technical and business tradeoffs that must be addressed in this proceeding,” Intel said. “Compared to the alternatives, it will repurpose and assign this spectrum more efficiently and, most importantly, far more quickly.” Intel met Chief Don Stockdale and officials from his Wireless Bureau, the International Bureau and the Office of Economic Analysis, said a filing posted Monday in docket 17-183. Giving up FCC authorizations and moving to a compressed band "will be painful for all involved," which is the FCC should opt for a distribution and scoring model for however the sale is conducted, said small-satellite operators ABS Global, Hispasat and Embratel Star One, in a posting Monday renewing a push for their distribution model (see 1903110059). That would divvy up some of the proceeds among all satellite operators authorized to transmit in the U.S. C band, not just C-Band Alliance members, they said. They said T-Mobile's band-clearing plan runs afoul of the Communications Act with a reverse auction phase of earth station owners bidding against satellite operators when those parties aren't competing licensees. T-Mobile didn't comment. America's Communications Association said the FCC should determine to what extent the C-band can be refarmed before acting. T-Mobile claims 200 MHz is “insufficient to meet the needs of 5G service providers” and “CTIA has intimated that at least 300 MHz is needed for the U.S. to maintain its global leadership,” ACA said. “Without this information, the figures that are being floated in this proceeding, and that are gradually increasing, are shots in the dark, and any decision as to how much spectrum should, or can, be refarmed would lack foundation,” ACA said. The group said the FCC should also look at the effect in rural markets.

An FCC order on the upper 37 GHz band, teed up for the April 12 commissioners' meeting, shows the length the agency will go to clear spectrum for 5G, as an ongoing auction tops $1 billion. The FCC proposes rules for coordinating with DOD on future use of the upper 37 GHz band beyond current DOD sites located there. The plan “strikes a reasonable balance,” said the draft order posted Friday. Chairman Ajit Pai unveiled the agenda Thursday (see 1903210062).

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said the April 12 commissioners’ meeting will focus on 5G for a second straight month. It includes the public notice for the auction of the 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands and a plan for sharing the 37 GHz band between industry and DOD. 5G is “the next big thing in wireless,” Pai blogged. He plans votes on nixing a rural telco USF rate floor and granting part of a USTelecom forbearance petition seeking ILEC relief from certain structural-separation and reporting duties. And there's a media modernization item, among others in the pipeline (see 1903210072).

AT&T representatives urged an incentive auction for the 2.5 GHz band, in meeting FCC Wireless Bureau staff. ”AT&T recognizes the complexity of the band but believes the best way to resolve the challenges is to hold both an incentive auction for existing licensees and a traditional auction for the whitespaces making this spectrum available for rapid 5G deployments,” AT&T said Monday in docket 18-120. The FCC sought comment last year on possible changes to rules for the band but found little consensus. The carrier said then an auction appeared inevitable (see 1809100045).

President Donald Trump’s administration again proposes to cut funding to CPB in its FY 2020 budget proposal as part of its “plan to move the Nation towards fiscal responsibility and to redefine the proper role of the Federal Government.” Trump signed off in October on a FY 2019 federal spending law that maintained CPB’s annual funding at $445 million through FY 2021, despite having proposed in that year’s budget request to draw down the program’s funding (see 1809280043). The budget increased proposed money for the FCC and NTIA from what the administration proposed in its FY 2019 request. The FCC’s figure is down from its funding level under the spending bill passed in February (see 1902150055).

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance sent members and customers a fact sheet Monday trying to set the record straight on the future of the 700 MHz T band. It was repurposed for commercial use by the 2012 law that created FirstNet, EWA noted. “It is debatable that the Congressional decision to take this heavily used band away from public safety (and collaterally from business entities) in exchange for 700 MHz spectrum for deployment of a national public safety broadband network was prudent policy, but the private land mobile industry is now stuck with the impending consequences,” EWA said: Some "attempt to capitalize on FCC inaction and licensees’ lack of understanding of spectrum policy processes to promote premature system migrations.” Congress requires only that the FCC start an auction of the band by 2021, not clear it of incumbents, the group reminded. EWA said any licensee that leaves the band now won't receive grant money from NTIA to cover its relocation costs. Proponents of rewriting the act face a tough road in Congress, the alliance said.