Success of Rural Tribal Window Demonstrates Need for Rural Education Window

Recently, the Federal Communications Commission’s first-ever Rural Tribal Priority Window (TPW) came to a close. This special spectrum application window allowed for rural tribal nations to apply for valuable Educational Broadband Service (EBS) frequencies over their lands that had never been licensed. The agency received applications for spectrum on 266 separate tribal lands; 418 applications and amendments were filed in all. The decision to auction unassigned EBS was made in a July 2019 FCC rulemaking regarding EBS. But is auctioning the remaining EBS spectrum the right decision? Absolutely not. Here’s why:

1.  The main reason the FCC created the TPW was because of a lack of broadband access on rural tribal lands. The same is true for non-tribal rural lands. Why not give rural communities the same opportunity to access EBS as rural tribal nations?
2. The TPW clearly demonstrates that rural communities are hungry for tools to help them deliver broadband, namely wireless spectrum. In its paperwork to the Office of Management and Budget  in 2019 following the EBS rulemaking, the FCC severely underestimated the number of tribal nations that would apply for spectrum in the window.
3. A commercial auction will slow the deployment of broadband in rural communities.
4. There is already a significant amount of spectrum in the hands of commercial providers all across the country, including rural areas. Giving them more won’t necessarily solve the digital divide.
5. Commercial carriers are set to get even more spectrum. Carriers will control over 1100 MHz of spectrum, not to mention their hundreds of MHz of high-band frequencies. Does the commercial sector really need all of EBS, too?
6.  Licensing EBS to educators does not mean commercial carriers are denied access. Most EBS spectrum that has been licensed is leased to a commercial provider – either mobile or fixed. Issuing new licenses in a Rural Educator Window would give local communities an option to either deploy their own network or partner with a commercial carrier.

The Rural Tribal Priority Window demonstrates just how eager rural communities are for tools to help close the digital divide. But the TPW also shows that auctioning EBS rather than offering it to local educators and communities will foolishly forego a critical opportunity to help other rural communities meet their connectivity needs.