Commissioner O'Rielly CBRS R&O Fact Sheet: Fixing the Rules to Enable Mid-Band 5G

The Federal Communications Commission will consider an item at its next Open Meeting to revise its existing rules governing the Citizens Band Radio Services (CBRS), which will utilize spectrum between 3.55 to 3.70 GHz. In doing so, the focus will be on correcting policy mistakes made pertaining to the Priority Access Licenses (PALs) back when rules were adopted in April 2015 and May 2016. While thoughtfully considering all proposals to improve the PALs has taken quite a bit of time, this process has not delayed the initiation of CBRS, as both PALs and General Authorized Access (GAA) are dependent on fully operational spectrum access systems (SAS) (and Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) systems where needed), which are still being considered under the FCC’s approval process. With this decision, it is expected that the PALs auction can occur in 2019, if consistent with other auctions to be scheduled.