FCC announcement unlikely to be the final decision about C-band spectrum

[Elderberry]

Space News by Jeff Foust — November 22, 2019

The announcement this week by the head of the Federal Communications Commission that he will seek a public action of satellite C-band spectrum is unlikely to be the final word in that debate, industry officials believe.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced Nov. 18 that he will propose the commission conduct a public auction of 280 megahertz of C-band spectrum currently allocated for satellite communications for use by terrestrial 5G services. Such an auction, he wrote in a letter to members of Congress, “will afford all parties a fair opportunity to compete for this 5G spectrum, while preserving the availability of the upper 200 megahertz of this band for the continued delivery of programming.”

Pai’s statement was a reversal of past comments, where he supported a proposal by the satellite industry to hold a private auction of that spectrum, valued by some estimates at up to $60 billion. That approach, though, was facing growing criticism from members of Congress, who wanted proceeds of any auction to go to the treasury.

Neither Pai nor the FCC have disclosed additional details about how that public auction would be conducted. In his letter, he emphasized that the C-band spectrum needs to be made available for 5G services “quickly” and that any auction “must generate revenue for the federal government.”

More: https://spacenews.com/fcc-announcement-unlikely-to-be-the-final-decision-about-c-band-spectrum/