New invoice requires a minimum of 1,250 megahertz of spectrum between 1.3-13.2 GHz be auctioned for full-power, licensed business use
It has been barely greater than a yr for the reason that public sale authority of the Federal Communications Fee was allowed to lapse, and a brand new, Republican-backed invoice has been launched which will generate some motion on the restoration of that authority and a legislative course for midband spectrum improvement.
Nevertheless, it additionally units up a conflict between those that advocate that the wi-fi business wants full-power, unique licenses to spectrum and those that again spectrum-sharing approaches. The Biden administration is predicted to launch this week an implementation plan of its personal Nationwide Spectrum Technique, which takes a “share when possible” method.
The one-year anniversary of the lapse of public sale authority got here on March 9. Right this moment, two high Republicans—Sen. Ted Cruz, the rating member of the Senate Commerce Committee and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), rating member of the subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband—launched a brand new invoice that they stated was the results of a year-long effort to place collectively a spectrum proposal that’s meant to each defend the nation’s nationwide safety pursuits (since federal customers, together with the Division of Protection, are the present customers of a lot of the airwaves extremely sought by the telecom business) and obtain the “biggest worth potential” for American taxpayers. A 3rd Republican, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, is an authentic co-sponsor of the invoice.
“To dominate in next-generation wi-fi applied sciences, keep forward of our adversaries, and advance robust financial progress, the U.S. should create a pipeline to develop business entry to mid-band spectrum,” stated Sen. Cruz. “The Spectrum Pipeline Act of 2024 meets these objectives whereas selling each client and nationwide safety pursuits.”
Thune stated: “This laws restores the FCC’s public sale authority, and, in doing so, it ensures that essential mid-band spectrum is made accessible for business 5G and superior Wi-Fi use, which is a win-win for American entrepreneurs and shoppers. I look ahead to working with Senator Cruz and my different colleagues to advance this essential and much-needed laws.”
Blackburn stated that the Spectrum Pipeline Act “proposes concrete motion to free essential mid-band spectrum for business use below outlined timelines.”
The invoice would require the Nationwide Telecommunications and Data Administration (NTIA) to determine a minimum of 2,500 megahertz of midband spectrum between 1.3 GHz-13.2 GHz that could possibly be reallocation for business use (both licensed or unlicensed), and stipulates that a minimum of half of the recognized spectrum should enable for “full energy business licensed use circumstances.”
Wi-fi business advocacy group CTIA has been urging the federal authorities to open up further spectrum below the situations that cellular community operators discover most favorable and environment friendly: full-power, exclusive-license use, which has been the normal method to business licensing within the U.S. Nevertheless, in an more and more congested spectrum surroundings with ever extra industries searching for entry to spectrum—and the Division of Protection keen to guard its personal operations throughout varied bands—the Biden administration has taken the place that creating higher sharing applied sciences is the pragmatic method.
The White Home launched its personal Nationwide Spectrum Technique late final yr, which recognized 5 candidate bands for near-term research and improvement, totaling 2,786 megahertz with an emphasis on midband spectrum and bolstering know-how for dynamic sharing of spectrum. The candidate bands ranged from 3.1 GHz to 37.6 GHz, with all however one among them below 20 GHz and have been a mixture of federal bands and shared federal/non-federal bands, to be studied not just for terrestrial wi-fi use however for space-based companies and aerial drones. That spectrum technique report made clear each that spectrum is more and more essential to all the pieces from nationwide safety to financial progress and technological management, and consideration on a nationwide stage must be given to not solely terrestrial cellular networks however to house improvement and spectrum for particular makes use of like drones and vehicles—and that spectrum is a finite useful resource for which there’s increasingly more competitors. It additionally declared that “Evolving to a ‘designed to share at any time when possible’ mindset will speed up environment friendly and efficient use of spectrum for all customers” and stated that NTIA would pursue “improvement of an everlasting, scalable mechanism to handle shared spectrum entry, together with by means of the event of a typical spectrum administration platform.”
The proposed Republican invoice would renew the FCC’s public sale authority for eight years from the date that the invoice took impact and require the company to public sale a minimum of 1,250 megahertz of spectrum for full-power business wi-fi use inside six years, together with a minimum of 600 megahertz inside three years. The invoice additionally requires the FCC to allocate a minimum of 125 megahertz of further spectrum for unlicensed use, and it removes a limitation in present regulation in order that federal companies can be allowed to purchase new tools utilizing spectrum public sale proceeds.
CTIA President and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker thanked Cruz and Thune for “pursuing the wanted motion to revive the FCC’s public sale authority and create a robust pipeline of full-power, licensed spectrum that can help People’ rising wi-fi knowledge use, defend our nationwide safety, and infuse actual competitors within the house broadband market. We look ahead to working with Congress on laws that can make sure the wi-fi business can proceed to construct wi-fi networks that supply aggressive client house broadband choices, help cutting-edge innovation, and assist the U.S. lead the world in wi-fi.”
Nevertheless, Michael Calabrese, director of the Wi-fi Future challenge on the Open Expertise Institute at New America, stated in emailed feedback that the invoice is “useless on arrival, not solely with Democrats, but additionally with some Republicans on Senate Armed Providers Committee.”
Calabrese continued: “A mandate to public sale 1,250 megahertz inside 5 years essentially presupposes that the Pentagon goes to not simply share, however clear off a majority of the spectrum they at the moment depend on within the decrease 3 GHz and seven to eight GHz bands. That will be a backdoor maneuver to undermine the research of those self same bands in President Biden’s Nationwide Spectrum Technique.” He went on so as to add that the spectrum pipeline proposed within the Republican invoice is “completely unbalanced” in that it mandates that the FCC public sale a minimum of ten occasions as a lot licensed, full-power spectrum because the minimal 125 megahertz for unlicensed. “That’s fully out of whack contemplating that at present roughly 80 p.c of all cellular system knowledge site visitors makes use of Wi-Fi, not cellular service spectrum,” he concluded.
The cellular business’s want for unique and full-power/high-power spectrum to be used over giant areas “is a mission achieved,” Calabrese advised RCR Wi-fi Information. “That’s protection spectrum, and so they have a lot. … That’s why they’ve gone into the mounted wi-fi enterprise.” What carriers want extra of, he stated, is spectrum for extra capability in high-traffic areas—and for that, an entry framework with decrease energy and sharing might work.
He referred to as the Republican invoice additionally disappointing as a result of it’s “such an overreach that it prevents a easy extension of FCC public sale authority.” And actually, Calabrese stated that the introduction of the invoice means that the narrowly divided Senate gained’t transfer ahead on extending the FCC’s public sale authority till subsequent yr—that means that the telecom business could face a good longer delay earlier than it will probably get readability on a spectrum roadmap, and an FCC that may truly reallocate and public sale any airwaves in any respect.
In the meantime, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel marked the one-year anniversary of the lapse of public sale authority by opening a brand new docket merchandise for public enter on how the company would possibly legally use its present regulatory instruments and authority to supply entry to its stock of beforehand licensed however at the moment unassigned spectrum.
“In gentle of the truth the company has confronted for nearly a yr, we are actually compelled to ask what we are able to do with our present unassigned spectrum with a view to maintain innovation transferring forward in a world marketplace for wi-fi that isn’t slowing down,” Rosenworcel stated in a press release. “I stay hopeful that the FCC’s public sale authority can be restored rapidly in order that this essential program is as soon as once more in a position to produce outcomes for shoppers and the financial system. The company stands able to work with lawmakers to make sure we don’t discover ourselves in the identical place subsequent yr.”