UPDATE The public comment period kicked-off for those wishing to weigh-in on the proposed changes to licensing of the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. CTIA and T-Mobile asked the Commission to increase the license terms and geographic areas the license covers. They and other carriers want to use the spectrum for 5G and argue the changes would spur investment.
Smaller carriers and ISPs say the changes will crowd them out. Attorney Ron Quirk of Marashlian & Donahue tells Inside Towers: “People have made investments based on the current rules,” he said, noting the proposed changes would “concentrate valuable licenses in the hands of a very few large wireless carriers.” Rural areas are going to suffer” if the FCC’s proposals pass, he said in an interview, because they’d be denied access to affordable wireless broadband. Quirk, who says this issue is “just as important as Net Neutrality,” urges the public to tell the FCC what they think.
After the FCC voted in October to begin the CBRS band rulemaking, trade associations like CTIA and the Wireless Infrastructure Association praised the agency for re-visiting the issue, calling them common-sense changes that will forge a flexible use of the 3.5GHz band. Filed comments to GN Docket No. 17-258 are due by December 28.
December 4, 2017
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