FCC Takes Steps to Modernize the Cellular Service

The Federal Communications Commission adopted fundamental, sweeping reforms of rules governing the 800 MHz Cellular (“Cellular”) Service, leading to a vastly streamlined Cellular licensing regime. While the existing Cellular Service licensing model was instrumental over the course of decades in fostering wireless deployment throughout the United States, many of the Cellular model’s legacy elements have become unnecessary or even detrimental to system improvements that depend on deployment of the latest digital technologies.

The FCC now adopts rules for the Cellular Service based on geographic licensing and achieve the regulatory reform goals articulated in the 2012 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order, recently echoed in the FCC Staff Working Group Report on FCC Process Reform, with an approach that differs somewhat from the FCC’s overlay licensing proposal. The FCC eliminates the need for a wide range of regulatory filings, modernize the rules that will remain in place, and delete obsolete provisions. The FCC reduces administrative burdens and time-consuming regulatory processes for licensees, who will benefit immediately from greater flexibility to modify their systems quickly in response to market demands, facilitating advanced broadband services to the benefit of consumers. The updated rules will also be more consistent with those governing other geographically-licensed commercial wireless services.


FCC Takes Steps to Modernize the Cellular Service Statement (AT&T)