5/30 FCC Ex Parte Letter with Public Interest Spectrum Coalition Urging FCC to Resist Changes to CBRS Licensing

New America's Open Technology Institute filed an ex parte letter with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in tandem with Public Knowledge, Consumers Union, the Schools Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition, the American Library Association, the Consumer Federation of America, Next Century Cities, Tribal Digital Village Network, Free Press, Common Cause, the Benton Foundation, and the Gigabit Libraries Network (together, the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, or PISC), urging the FCC to "reiterate the importance of retaining small license areas with short terms and competitive renewal for Priority Access Licenses (PALs) in the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS)."

Below is an excerpt from the letter:

"Our groups are very concerned about reports that at least one commissioner is encouraging industry stakeholders to accept the so-called ‘compromise’ struck between national and regional mobile carriers that would enlarge all seven PALs by using Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the top 306 Cellular Market Areas (CMAs) and county-based geographic area licenses in the remaining 428 CMAs. This compromise also would reportedly either preserve no census tract PALs or, even worse, make two small-area PALs available in a second auction by reducing the General Authorized Access (GAA) spectrum available to the public and all band stakeholders."

"[Our groups] continue to believe that auctioning PALs with coverage areas larger than census tracts would undermine the goal of this small-cell innovation band. The current PAL rules allow rural and small ISPs, individual business facilities and venues, and public-purpose networks – including schools, libraries, college campuses and municipal services – to leverage access to both interference-protected and unlicensed (GAA) mid-band spectrum. This innovative synergy will be lost if smaller and local users cannot acquire PALs."

“The CBRS rules struck a careful balance that gives every industry and public institution direct access to interference-protected spectrum, allowing market forces – rather than a top-down FCC industrial policy – to promote innovation, competition, rural broadband access, and consumer choice in the development of America’s future 5G ecosystem. The Commission should reject any effort to backtrack on this forward-thinking spectrum policy.”