WASHINGTON-Coming on the heels of a successful lobbying effort to change the 2 GHz band plan, rural wireless carriers are asking the Federal Communications Commission to revise the 700 MHz band plans to allocate more spectrum in smaller chunks.
The Rural Telecommunications Group last week suggested that one of the blocks in each of the upper and lower 700 MHz bands be licensed on a cellular marketing area rather than the currently planned economic area.
“Circumstances have changed dramatically since the FCC adopted the licensing schemes for the upper and lower 700 MHz band,” said Caressa Bennet, RTG general counsel.
One of the most significant changes is the timing of the 700 MHz auctions. When the FCC developed the current plan-consisting of six EAs in each of the upper and lower 700 MHz bands-the auction was supposed to occur before Sept. 30, 2000.
RTG believes the FCC now has time to refresh the record on what types of technology and services for which the 700 MHz band will be used and the amount of spectrum needed for those technologies and services.
The FCC also was concerned that if it created smaller blocks, it would have to devise a complicated protection scheme for the TV broadcasters still in the band, but now that does not seem to be an issue, said Bennet.
“It is likely that Congress will establish a firm deadline for completing the digital TV transition, and the broadcasters now recognize that they must complete the DTV transition and return the vacated analog spectrum,” said Bennet. “It is unlikely that the FCC will auction additional 700 MHz spectrum, or that Congress would require or allow such an auction, without first resolving incumbency issues. Accordingly, problems associated with the DTV transition should no longer be a basis for rejecting the use of smaller license areas.”
In 1997, Congress said that in 2007, broadcasters would have to return the extra 6 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band given to TV broadcasters to facilitate the DTV transition. But TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. Removing the caveat has become known as establishing a hard date and has been encouraged widely by the wireless industry, which wants access to some of the spectrum.
Congress is expected to consider a hard date for the DTV transition as part of the 2006 budget reconciliation process. Due to the focus on Hurricane Katrina, the budget reconciliation process is expected to ramp up this month.
In August, the FCC changed the band plan for advanced wireless services in the 2 GHz band, making additional spectrum available to rural carriers. The new bands will be arranged by creating a new 20-megahertz F Block.
