8/7 FCC C-Band Comments On Behalf of Public Interest Spectrum Coalition

New America's Open Technology Institute wrote and submitted comments on behalf of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition urging the Federal Communications Commission ("Commission") to open up the 3.7-4.2 GHz band ("C-Band") for authorized point-to-multipoint fixed wireless services in rural, Tribal, and other hard-to-serve areas to immediately provide relief to communities that currently lack high-speed broadband services. The comments are the latest in a series of filings in this proceeding, and specifically respond to studies filed in the docket that show the promise and the public interest benefits of fixed wireless services being deployed in the C-Band. The comments also urge the Commission to adopt a public auction, and responds to a proposal from cable companies that could be molded to fit the Commission's statutory authority. The Schools Health Libraries Broadband Coalition, American Library Association, Consumer Reports, Next Century Cities, Public Knowledge, Common Cause, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Tribal Digital Village Network, Institute for Local Self Reliance, Access Humboldt, and x-Lab all signed onto the comments as well. An introduction and summary is available below:

PISC fully supports the Commission’s proposal in the NPRM to authorize the coordination of fixed wireless deployments in the ongoing FSS portion of the band. The Commission should go further to address the rural digital divide by also authorizing coordinated sharing on an opportunistic basis in locally-unused portions of the future flexible-use portions of the band.

The Reed Engineering Study filed by WISPA, Microsoft and Google conclusively demonstrates the feasibility of coordinated sharing between fixed point-to-multipoint (P2MP) operators and existing earth stations on every megahertz of the ongoing FSS band in a majority of rural, Tribal and small town communities where it’s most needed. The Reed Study further confirms that coordinated access to unused spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band can serve as the foundation for high-capacity fixed wireless broadband services in most rural and underserved areas with no harmful interference to incumbent FSS licensees.

The directional nature of fixed wireless P2MP permits the local coordination of sectors even where earth stations are in the area, but located outside the beam of the base station and the client device return path. As a result, and despite making very conservative assumptions, the Reed Study demonstrates that every megahertz of FSS spectrum can be coordinated for P2MP deployments in 78% of the geographic area of the U.S., where more than 80 million Americans live, without causing harmful interference to incumbent earth stations or TV/radio consumers. The credibility of the Reed Study’s finding that receive-only earth stations typically require a 10 kilometer protection radius is reinforced by a subsequent filing showing that “earth station operators in the Los Angeles area have consented to P2MP operations in the adjacent 3650-3700 MHz band at distances as small as 10.3 km.”

It’s critical to understand that the Reed Study focused on the more challenging and limited option for sharing FSS spectrum: co-channel sharing. It did not consider the less challenging scenario of adjacent channel sharing, enabled by frequency separation. By making such conservative assumptions (e.g., that all earth stations are operating on every transponder across the entire 500 megahertz), the Reed study greatly underestimates the potential for coordinated P2MP access to C-band to rapidly and affordably narrow the rural digital divide.

Another important implication of the Reed Study’s conservative assumption of cochannel sharing is that every megahertz of the ongoing FSS portion of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band is currently available today and will continue to be regardless of an earth station repack in the 80 percent of the country where 80 million people live. Because the ability of P2MP operators and FSS earth stations to coordinate sharing is independent of the amount of spectrum the Commission leaves available for FSS operations after repacking, the Commission can move quickly to authorize coordinated co-channel deployments, with no worries that a subsequent earth station repack will reduce the spectrum available to fixed wireless operators

Whether the Commission consolidates FSS earth stations onto 300 megahertz or 130 megahertz, 5G mobile services will not be built out in rural and other less-densely-populated areas for many years. As PISC recommended in its initial Comments, we urge the Commission to authorize P2MP operations to coordinate use of the future ‘flexible use’ portion of the band on an opportunistic basis (e.g., licensed by rule), subject to AFC control and revocable permission to continue operating. PISC also recommends the early certification of an AFC system because it is the most reliable and cost-effective way to facilitate the coordinated use of unused spectrum capacity across the entire 3.7-4.2 GHz band, including on a use-it-or-share-it basis in any lower segments of the band that are immediately reallocated or reserved for flexible use licensing.

Finally, concerning reallocation of the lower portion of the band, PISC strongly agrees with a central premise of the ACA Connects Proposal: The speediest, fairest and most straightforward option consistent with the Commission’s statutory authority is a traditional forward auction that consolidates FSS incumbents into the upper portion of the band and requires auction winners to reimburse incumbents for any eligible and reasonable costs. Unlike a private auction, the courts have consistently upheld the Commission’s authority to reorganize bands, to modify licenses, and to authorize mechanisms that require winning bidders to reimburse incumbents’ relocation costs.

There is strong precedent to support license conditions that require winning bidders to share the costs of relocating FSS incumbents and to negotiate voluntary and reasonable incentive payments, as needed, to incumbents in exchange for expedited clearance. The FCC also has the authority to appoint an independent Transition Facilitator to plan and coordinate the clearing of FSS earth stations from the lower portion of C-band, while compensating FSS incumbents from a clearinghouse or pooled fund that shares the costs of relocation and repacking among winning bidders on a MHz/POP or other fair basis.