FCC Rule Change Could Impact 3.5 GHz CBRS Band
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is close to making a major decision regarding the future of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS).
Established in 2015 by the FCC, the CBRS is a framework that will enable shared wireless broadband in the 3550-3700 MHz (3.5 GHz) band. This system was designed to grant simultaneous, interference-free spectrum access to commercial and government organizations. The CBRS has not been made publicly available yet, and right now the only way to use it is by obtaining an experimental license from the FCC. Right now, the only frequencies that can be used are in the 3650-3700 MHz range.
The hope is that both large and small internet service providers will be able to use this band to expand their LTE coverage. Access will be tightly controlled, and to utilize the CBRS, a network will have to be connected to both a Spectrum Access System (SAS) as well as an Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) network.
The SAS will distribute spectrum across three different tiers:
Tier 1: Incumbents;
Tier 2: Priority Access License (PAL); and
Tier 3: General Authorized Access (GAA) users.
An intense debate is raging throughout the industry about the best way to distribute Tier 2 PAL licenses — and the FCC will have to determine the best course of action before it can open the CBRS for commercial use.
About PALs
PALs, which are to be awarded at auction, will give owners the right to operate in designated territories without the threat of interference. The existing plan calls for PALs to be distributed on a census tract basis with license period of three years. There are currently more than 74,000 license areas and about 500,000 total licenses in the U.S.
On April 20, the FCC, in conjunction with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) and Competitive Carriers Association (CCA), stepped in and announced a joint proposal to revise the census-based distribution system and instead auction PALS at the metropolitan and county levels — a move many argue would favor the nation’s biggest wireless carriers, as it would result in larger license areas.
How both sides see the issue
This proposal generated immediate pushback from the small and rural service provider communities, who maintain they will be unable to compete if license areas increase in geographical size. The plan could have catastrophic consequences, and result in a small number of companies controlling rural internet service. For end users, this would mean higher prices and reduced coverage.
The Wireless Internet Service Provider Association (WISPA), which has been tasked by the FCC to reach a compromise with the CTIA and CCA, released the following statement on its website:
“WISPA supports keeping the current census-tract-sized PALs, which make the most sense for the intended purpose of spurring investments in rural areas and innovative local services. We believe the current rules are fair to all parties – from the biggest wireless carrier down to the smallest rural WISP. The changes being sought would help only the large mobile wireless carriers.”
Large wireless carriers, meanwhile, view the current PAL auction system as too large and complex to effectively manage, and potentially detrimental for innovation.
“Getting new rules for the 3.5 GHz mid-band spectrum right will be crucial to helping the U.S. reclaim 5G global leadership from China and South Korea and the FCC should act to make investment-friendly changes to the rules,” explained Kara Graves, Director for Regulatory Affairs at CTIA.
Here is the most recent update
The CTIA and CCA have proposed a compromise that would reduce the total number of license areas to 2,700 and the total number of licenses to 19,000. PALs would be auctioned off by cellular metropolitan area for the top 306 CMAs, and by counties for the rest of the U.S. There would be seven licenses in every census-tract area, with five auctioned at the county level, and two at the census tract level.
The compromise also calls for a license term of seven years. PALs will be renewable based on unspecified performance criteria.
As of right now, WISPA is still having internal discussions about the compromise and so we are waiting to hear whether they will be able to drum up enough support to reach an agreement.
How this could play out
Ultimately, it will fall on the FCC to decide whether they will protect the interests of large or small ISPs. If the FCC decides to rely primarily on census tracts, everything should work smoothly. We should see healthy competition and reliable service across most areas.
If the FCC opts for larger MSAs and CMAs, this would limit the number of auction blocks to only 734 for the entire country instead of the 66,438 which currently exist. Most of these areas are centralized around major metropolitan areas. The cost of these larger areas would eliminate about 95 percent of the WISP operators in the U.S. from being able to bid.
So if the decision goes the way of the large blocks, it could be very detrimental to our industry.
The good news is that no formal decision has been made yet and so there is still time to voice your opinion on the matter. To learn more about what WISPA is doing to block the mobile industry from clamping down on the CBRS spectrum, and how you can get involved, click here.