Wireless Telecommunications

The Federal Communications Commission established the procedures for a robust challenge process to ensure that the FCC targets Mobility Fund Phase II (MF-II) support to primarily rural areas that lack unsubsidized 4G LTE service. Establishing the challenge process will enable the FCC to resolve eligible area disputes quickly and expeditiously.

In February, the FCC established the framework for the MF-II, $4.53 billion of funding over ten years, and sought comment on the process under which interested parties could challenge the eligibility of areas for MF-II support. This action establishes a challenge process that will be administratively efficient and fiscally responsible. This item adopts parameters for a one-time collection of 4G LTE coverage data tailored to MF-II. The FCC will use this coverage data, in conjunction with subsidy data, to establish the map of presumptively eligible areas. Interested parties will have a window after the release of this map to file challenges to areas deemed presumptively ineligible, and providers will have an opportunity to respond to those challenges. This item also includes an Order on Reconsideration, which resolves certain issues raised in petitions for reconsideration of the Mobility Fund II Report and Order adopted in February.

The Federal Communications Commission took steps to streamline and harmonize its license renewal and service continuity rules to ensure that Wireless Radio Services (WRS) licensees have a consistent framework and use spectrum to benefit all Americans. The Report and Order provides a clear, harmonized set of rules, including:

• Establishing a consistent standard for renewing wireless licenses;
• Setting forth safe harbors providing expedited renewal for licensees that meet their initial term construction requirement and remain operating at or above that level;
• Adopting consistent service continuity rules, which provide for automatic termination of any license on which a licensee permanently discontinues service or operation;
• Eliminating unnecessary, legacy “comparative renewal rules”; and,
• Requiring that when portions of geographic licenses are sold, both parties to the transaction have a clear construction obligation and penalty in the event of failure, closing a loophole used to avoid our construction requirements.

The FCC also adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on a range of ideas to facilitate continued investment during the renewal terms

Often sparring partners, the wireless industry and public interest advocates both came out in support of the AIRWAVES Act — but with very different hopes for where the legislation would lead.

The bill instructs the Federal Communications Commission to auction off the government-controlled spectrum of radio frequencies used for wireless communication, with the first auction to be held by next December. The bill would allow some spectrum for exclusive, or “licensed” use, as well as some for shared, or “unlicensed” use. Public interest advocates have pushed the FCC to give more access to unlicensed users by allowing them to share spectrum with private companies who get exclusive rights to certain bands. Those with licenses argue sharing can interfere with their signals. The AIRWAVES bill, which stands for Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum, leaves the matter up to the FCC.

Many police officers, firefighters and paramedics carry their own smartphones to do the things their department-issued equipment can’t. But now, 16 years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, exposed the inability of American first responders to talk to each other, a nationwide cellular network called “FirstNet” is launching to give public safety employees the ability to send data, video and text to each other.

When a crisis hits and cell towers are overwhelmed, calls from first responders will preempt calls made by the public. FirstNet is expected to be operational by March. Congress established the First Responder Network Authority after reports that firefighters and police officers were unable to communicate at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon after the Sept. 11 attacks. But the idea of placing all public safety agencies on one interoperable broadband network took off after AT&T was awarded wireless spectrum that will provide the bandwidth for the project and then committed to spending $40 billion to build new facilities and provide security for it. Each state, territory and the District of Columbia must opt in to the project individually so that their public service agencies can obtain the phones or sim cards and wireless plans needed to access FirstNet.

Bringing high-speed internet access to more of rural America is a policy goal that’s popular among Republicans and Democrats alike. But the issue isn’t moving very fast on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers from both parties, along with President Donald Trump, want to include rural broadband provisions in a larger infrastructure bill, a move that would benefit smaller wireless providers such as United States Cellular Corp. and C Spire Wireless as well as equipment companies. But infrastructure has taken a back seat so far to health-care and tax legislation in the 115th Congress. It’s unclear, at best, whether any infrastructure legislation will advance in 2017.

For now, all of the action on rural broadband is at the Federal Communications Commission, where Chairman Ajit Pai has made the issue a top priority. The commission plans to vote Aug. 3 on several related initiatives. Despite the commission’s focus, however, small and rural wireless providers worry that the agency will be slow or insufficient in serving the areas that need broadband most.

Unlimited data plans are slowing down mobile speeds for Verizon and AT&T customers, according to data released by mobile network measurement company OpenSignal.

Verizon and AT&T reinstated their unlimited plans in February to compete with T-Mobile and Sprint, which have long offered unlimited data plans, and have since seen a deluge of demand. Greater data demand — either more data usage or more customers — means slower speeds. Think of it as increased traffic on a highway. Verizon and AT&T also have nearly double the subscribers of T-Mobile and Sprint, so changes in their offerings hit their networks harder. Carriers have long supported greater leeway to manage their networks as part of the US government’s fierce debate over net neutrality. T-Mobile’s unlimited plan often limits video streaming quality in a bid to ease the burden on its network; others like Verizon recently have tested similar tools to improve speeds. To staunch advocates of open internet rules, however, these techniques violate the spirit of federal safeguards meant to ensure all web traffic is treated equally. Both Verizon and AT&T saw a notable decline in speeds after introducing unlimited plans.

At our meeting on Aug 3, the Commission will vote on a mid-band spectrum Notice of Inquiry. While it provides a great opportunity to point out any frequencies, between 3.7 and 24 GHz, that you think may facilitate wireless broadband services, the main focus is the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz band. Recently, an ad-hoc coalition of equipment manufacturers, wireless providers, and unlicensed users have been discussing ideas on how to open the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz band for licensed mobile services, while protecting or accommodating incumbents. This will provide an excellent opportunity because it is so close to the 3.5 GHz PALs.

Rep Austin Scott (R-GA) brought back his End Taxpayer Funded Cell Phones Act before House lawmakers left town. That’s the legislation that GOP leadership fast-tracked straight to floor consideration immediately after its introduction in 2016. (They tried to advance it under suspension of the rules, and it went down 207-143.) It now has 18 GOP backers, triple what it had before. “My bill will reform the Lifeline Program and restore it to its original purpose of providing landline services and prohibit Universal Service support for mobile services,” Rep Scott said. A GOP leadership aide said there’s no talk on when and if the measure may be brought to the floor this time around.

Sens Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) introduced the Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (AIRWAVES) Act, which will encourage the federal government to continue to free up spectrum for commercial licensed and unlicensed use and leverage the success of spectrum auctions to help close the urban-rural divide.

First, the legislation establishes a spectrum pipeline that will provide more capacity for wireless providers to improve existing service and expand to new areas. The AIRWAVES Act aims to motivate industry and federal agencies to find ways to better utilize spectrum and avoid a spectrum crunch and lay the groundwork for 5G technologies. Second, this legislation requires 10 percent of all of the proceeds from spectrum auctions in the bill to go directly to wireless broadband infrastructure buildout in unserved and underserved areas throughout rural communities across the country.

A bi-partisan coalition of 43 Congressional Reps is asking the Federal Communications Commission to reserve at least three TV white space channels in the 600 MHz band to support rural broadband deployments. “We believe that the television white spaces (TVWS) have strong potential to revolutionize broadband internet accessibility in rural areas,” wrote the coalition in a letter to the FCC. The coalition was led by Rep Kevin Cramer (R-ND) but also included some Democratic representatives, including Rep Anna Eshoo (D-CA).

The three channels referenced would include the duplex gap between 652-663 MHz, Channel 37 (608-614 MHz) and an additional vacant channel in the post-auction broadcast TV band (54-608 MHz), the letter stated. The channels would be reserved for unlicensed use. If the idea of reserving three channels below 700 MHz for rural broadband sounds familiar, it may be because that’s what Microsoft has asked for to support the company’s plan to spur the deployment of TV white spaces technology to unserved rural areas. The 600 MHz band initially was licensed to television broadcasters but a portion of that band will now be repurposed for wireless use. A recent auction gave broadcasters the option of voluntarily relinquishing spectrum and sharing the auction proceeds with the government.