The FCC Must Update the Spectrum Screen

Many parties, including Verizon and Sprint, have been arguing that the Federal Communications Commission must update the spectrum screen to reflect current wireless marketplace realities.

Now, on the eve of the FCC adopting rules that will govern two spectrum auctions, Sprint has proposed a new, allegedly “easy to implement,” spectrum screen that continues to ignore the biggest defect in the Commission’s application of the spectrum screen: the exclusion of 138 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum, which is available and used for mobile broadband.

Instead, Sprint proposes to apply complicated calculations to various spectrum bands on an urban, suburban, and rural basis to create a “weighted” spectrum screen that, unsurprisingly, decreases the weight of Sprint’s 147 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings to 11.1 MHz, at most. Our latest ex parte filing makes the case that the FCC should reject Sprint’s self-serving and short-sighted proposal and instead fix the spectrum screen by updating it to include all spectrum that is suitable and available for commercial mobile use.

[March 10]