Federal Communications Commission

At the February 2020 open meeting, the Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on procedures for the 3.5 GHz Priority Access License, or PAL, auction. Having taken the lead on the issue, I'll admit that it has been a long road to get here, but this important step represents one of the last actions the FCC needs to take to make these critical mid-band licenses available for 5G and other next-generation wireless services.

In the last few weeks of January 2020, several lawmakers from New York wrote to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai over concerns about a recent decision to "make all of New York State ineligible for Phase I Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) awards." On Jan 30, 2020, Chairman Pai responded by stating that the draft report and order, particularly the RDOF's Phase I awards, "contained some overly broadband language on that issue.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced that the items below are tentatively on the agenda for the February Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Friday, February 28, 2020:

Here's the agenda for the Federal Communications Commission's February open meeting:

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai shared draft rules that would reform the use of the C-band and make a large amount of spectrum available for 5G, the next generation of wireless technology. The C-band is a 500-megahertz segment of spectrum from 3.7 to 4.2 GHz, which is now mostly used by fixed satellite companies to beam content to video and audio broadcasters, cable systems, and other content distributors. However, satellite companies don’t need the entire C-band to provide the services they are providing today.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau established the procedures for its investment of up to $691.2 million over the next ten years to support the deployment of advanced, hardened broadband and voice networks to all locations in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai proposed providing additional opportunities for unlicensed white space devices to deliver wireless broadband services in rural areas. Such devices operate in portions of the broadcast television bands (channels 2-35) and spectrum not being used for authorized services. Specifically, Chairman Pai is proposing to permit higher transmit power and higher antennas for fixed white space devices in rural areas.

The Federal Communications Commission’s Enforcement Bureau announced a $31 million settlement with TeleQuality Communications for violating competitive bidding and rate rules and overbilling the FCC’s Rural Health Care Program. The settlement requires TeleQuality to provide the Universal Service Fund with $31 million worth of repayments and forfeitures of payment claims as a sanction. Over a four-year period, from 2015-2018, the company admits to using fabricated sales quotes as urban rates and failing to use FCC-required methods for determining rural rates.