On the heels of the FCC’s recent announcement of a millimeter wave spectrum auction in November, the Competitive Carriers Association and CTIA are both lobbying for further releases of all available mmWave bandwidth.
The November auction would include 700 MHz in the 24 GHz band, as well as spectrum in the 28 GHz band. It will be the FCC’s first mmWave auction as the industry prepares to build out and launch 5G.
“CCA applauds the FCC’s efforts to unleash additional spectrum resources and encourages the Commission to adopt balanced mmW[ave] auction procedures to ensure all carriers can access mmW[ave] licenses at auction to pave the way to deploying net-generation technologies,” said CCA president and CEO Steven K. Berry. “As the FCC considers rules that will govern the mmW[ave] spectrum auction process and the industry prepares for 5G deployments, I strongly encourage the Commission to make as much mmW[ave] spectrum available as soon as feasible.”
Berry also implied that the current auction would disproportionally benefit large carriers and leave precious little bandwidth for smaller carriers.
Separately, CTIA submitted similar comments directly to the FCC, pointing to America’s position behind China and South Korea in 5G-readiness. The group petitioned the FCC to auction spectrum on the 37/39 GHz and 47 GHz band if it wouldn’t delay current proceedings, citing the fact that “not only have these bands been the focus of standards and technology development, but the Commission already has adopted technical and licensing rules for these bands.”
Finally, CTIA encouraged the FCC to release a calendar of future auction plans as soon as possible so that wireless operators could prepare and plan accordingly.
Individually, AT&T signaled its support for these proposals, even if the additional auctions would “result in some marginal delay” of the 24 GHz and 28 GHz sales.
