Wireless Telecommunications

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is planning to make some major overhauls at the FCC. Eight months into his term, Pai is preparing to “modernize [the FCC’s] rules to match the realities of today’s marketplace.” At 2017’s National Broadcast Association’s Radio Show, Pai announced he would present to his fellow FCC Commissioners at least one Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) every month, starting in September. These monthly NPRMs are intended to address concerns that Chairman Pai has assessed are part of those "outdated or unnecessary media regulations that should be eliminated or modified.”

Pai’s statements at NAB focused on broadcasting, while his statements via a blog post go into more detail on what’s ahead outside of the broadcast industry. With the tentative agenda for the Commission’s upcoming September meeting posted, it’s shaping up to be a busy time at the FCC for the foreseeable future

Household internet access via a mobile-only connection increased from 8.86% in 2011 to 20.00% in 2015. This paper uses national data to model the propensity of a mobile-only connection via logistic regressions. An inter-temporal non-linear Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition is then used to determine the driving factors behind this trend. The results show that while changing characteristics over time account for less than 1% of the trend, behavioral relationships changed dramatically as specific groups were much more likely to be adopters of mobile-only in 2015. The primary behavioral relationships leading to increased mobile-only connections are those associated with age (50.55%), race/ethnic background (4.75%), and non-metro status (1.88%). The finding that these demographic groups are becoming more willing to adopt the internet via the mobile-only connection can have important implications for future broadband policy.

T-Moble and Verizon Wireless were the two big winners of the 2017 U.S. Market Report by Ookla, which measures broadband performance for wireless networks. Overall, Ookla’s data found that U.S. mobile broadband download speeds have increased by 19% during the past year to reach 22.69 Mbps. Rural mobile broadband speeds lag the national average. The speed scores assess performance for both upload and download speeds. Average upload speeds increased slightly to 8.51 Mbps, a 4% improvement.

Percentage improvements in both download and upload speeds were smaller than in previous years. U.S. global rankings slipped as a result, with the U.S. now ranked 44th globally, down from 42nd for Q1-Q2 2017. Ookla found an average rural mobile broadband speeds of 17.93 Mbps, which is 20.9% slower than the national average. This translates into an ASR of 69.6% in rural service areas (RSAs) compared to a national ASR average of 74.9%. Metropolitan service areas had an ASR of 76.2%.

Since becoming Chairman, I have consistently emphasized the need for the Commission’s regulations to match realities of the current marketplace. Our rules must reflect today’s technological and economic conditions, not those of yesterday. And at this month’s open meeting, we will advance this objective by focusing on whether to update or scrap outdated rules. That’s why we’re dubbing September .

By most accounts, the U.S. broadcast incentive auction was a success. Does that mean it was perfect? No. This was a very complex undertaking. Were lessons learned? Absolutely, and I will discuss that a bit later. But all things considered, the mechanisms designed and put in place worked relatively well. Through the incentive auction, the U.S., on a completely voluntary basis, reallocated broadcast spectrum to mobile use, which will now be used by private commercial providers to offer 4G and 5G broadband networks. In fact, one U.S. winning bidder has already announced that it will initiate 5G in 600 MHz and has already turned on its first 600 MHz LTE system.

Federal agencies, especially the Department of Defense (DoD), don’t face normal marketplace pressures to economize their use of spectrum. While the potential societal gains of reallocating federal spectrum for commercial use are likely in the hundreds of billions of dollars, attempts at addressing this problem have met many roadblocks. Today, I’m offering another idea for consideration: the option of allowing agencies to free up some of their spectrum holdings in exchange for budgetary relief. While I still believe the imposition of Agency Spectrum Fees is the best course of action, this new proposal represents a compromise between differing carrot and stick approaches. And it is particularly timely today, as many of these federal agencies face increasing budgetary pressure. I suggest that federal agencies be permitted to use their spectrum holdings to offset the annual budgetary caps and sub caps. This would mean that, in achieving its respective budget limits, a federal agency could substitute the market value – as determined by an average of Congressional Budget Office and Office of Management and Budget estimates – of their surrendered spectrum to offset other cuts or even expand its spending options. It amounts to a spectrum-for-cash swap.

Public policy has probably never been more important for the US wireless industry as it will be over the next several years. And the schedule for Mobile World Congress Americas underscores that. Legislative and regulatory issues will play a major role at the trade show, starting with the first keynote Sept 12 featuring Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and CTIA CEO Margaret Attwell Baker. Other discussions include a panel analyzing the FCC’s incentive auction of 600 MHz spectrum, a look at unmanned aerial services hosted by CTIA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Jackie McCarthy and a round table examining how the coming transition to 5G is spurring new efforts to streamline siting processes. And that’s just day one.

As far as the US perspective, our priorities generally seek to create a regulatory environment that provides our telecommunications industries the opportunity to innovate, obtain investment and ensure continued growth for years to come. We also seek to promote the interests of our citizens, especially those who are unserved and in need of modern and robust connectivity in order to participate in the new digital economy.

[Commentary] It’s time to stop the regulatory foot-dragging and require the mobile phone industry to use its technology’s capabilities to deliver safety alerts with the same accuracy that delivers a taxi and the same functionality that delivers video. Immediately after the installation of the Trump Federal Communications Commission, the mobile carriers filed a petition to stop the implementation of the earlier decision on Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) improvements that were strongly advocated by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children as well as public safety managers across the country. The Trump FCC magnified the failure of the current system by not acting on the WEA improvements proposed last September. The new FCC majority even removed wireless alerts form the charter of the public safety and industry working group that made the original recommendations.

If the Obama FCC regulations and recommendations were in effect, geo-targeting could deliver the precise message to specific audiences; those messages could contain links to maps and other important information; and the ability to link with users would allow the collection of information from victims, providing a rapid triage among survivors and targeting the delivery of rescue and other services. Instead, in Houston, victims overloaded the 911 system and public safety officials had to resort to social media. The FCC must learn from what happened in Hurricane Harvey.

[Tom Wheeler is a visiting fellow with the Governance Studies, Center for Technology Innovation, and former Chairman to the FCC.]

Delaware became the latest state to pass legislation aimed at streamlining policies for the siting and deployment of small cells. And unlike some other states, Delaware’s effort apparently didn’t face much vocal opposition.

As expected, Gov John Carney (D-DE) signed House Bill 189—dubbed the Advanced Wireless Infrastructure Investment Act—which enables carriers and their partners to apply to place small cells on public rights-of-way directly through the state’s department of transportation. The bill passed the Delaware General Assembly in July unanimously, according to The Coastal Point, a local media outlet. Naturally, the wireless industry was quick to praise the move.