Spectrum

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the following items are tentatively on the agenda for the Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, December 12, 2018:

What will wake America up from its Thanksgiving day food coma? Here's the Federal Communications Commission’s December 2018 open meeting agenda:

I thought I’d focus on what the Federal Communications Commission is doing to promote US leadership in some of the most promising sectors of our economy. In particular, I’d like to talk about next-generation wireless technology and the space industry, which you may be surprised to learn has key tie-ins with the FCC.

The Federal Communications Commission's 600 MHz incentive auction of TV broadcasters’ unwanted spectrum was a noteworthy event. It was the culmination of years of work by officials at the FCC—it initially arose from the National Broadband Plan in 2010—and it featured “beachfront” low-band spectrum ideal for long-distance connections. Further, the auction itself sported a unique “reverse” auction that paid TV broadcasters for their unwanted spectrum licenses, and then made that spectrum available to wireless carriers and others through a traditional “forward” auction.

Cellphone carriers often call their most valuable radio-wave licenses “beachfront” property. As with real estate, it pays to be in a prime location. Government officials will test that thinking this month by selling some once-barren tracts of that virtual real estate in the upper reaches of the wireless spectrum. How much companies are willing to pay for them remains to be seen. The Federal Communications Commission began the first of two auctions for extremely high-frequency spectrum licenses, raising cash from a type of radio wave once considered useless for wireless service.

The US Government Accountability Office was asked to review spectrum use by tribal entities—tribal governments and tribally owned telecommunications providers. This report examines (1) tribal entities' ability to obtain and access spectrum to provide broadband services and the reported barriers that may exist, and (2) the extent to which the Federal Communications Commission promotes and supports tribal efforts to obtain and access spectrum. GAO interviewed 16 tribal entities that were using wireless technologies.

Sens Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Tom Udall (D-NM) have added their voices to those of broadcasters and others asking the Federal Communications Commission to be careful how it allows new users to share the C-band spectrum they use to receive programming networks from suppliers.

While several slices of spectrum can carry mobile internet, the most promising for rural school districts is one the Federal Communications Commission first reserved for educational television broadcasts in the 1960s. Over three decades, the government gave away more than 2,000 spectrum licenses to school districts and education nonprofits, primarily in urban areas. But the FCC effectively stopped issuing such licenses in 1995, because many license holders weren’t using their spectrum, and instead making money by leasing it to commercial telecommunication companies.

T-Mobile disclosed a major new spectrum deal with Sprint that the company said stands apart from the two carriers’ plans to merge. However, details of the new transaction are vague at best.

Public Knowledge, joined by Common Cause, Consumers Union, Open Markets Institute, and Writers Guild of America West, filed reply comments with the Federal Communications Commission asking the agency to deny the proposed merger of T-Mobile and Sprint. Senior Policy Counsel Phillip Berenbroick said, "The record compiled by the Federal Communications Commission clearly demonstrates that the proposed transaction will substantially reduce competition in the wireless market and harm consumers. Post-merger, New T-Mobile, along with AT&T and Verizon, would dominate the wireless market.