Michael O’Rielly, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), said in an interview with light reading that he believed that the C-band is crucial for the widespread promotion of 5g services in the United States. At present, the C-band auction plan proposed by Ajit Pai, chairman of FCC, will benefit both mobile operators and satellite operators.
It is reported that Ajit Pai's draft proposal requires that the 280mhz spectrum on the C-band can be flexibly used for services including 5g through a public auction to be started on December 8. At present, satellite operators use the 500MHz spectrum of the entire C-band to transmit video and broadcast it to the American people.
Ajit Pai's proposal is controversial in that he calls for $9.7 billion to be allocated to satellite operators to speed up their spectrum removal and handover. The money will come from companies bidding for the C-band spectrum and will be allocated to satellite companies that are currently using the C-band, so that they can transfer these bands more quickly. In fact, satellite companies will not pay these fees until 2021 when they complete the business transfer in major cities in the United States. In addition to $9.7 billion, the FCC will pay satellite companies $3 billion to $5 billion to update their devices to clear the 280mhz C-band spectrum designated for 5g.
Satellite companies have been cautious in their public response. The C-band alliance of satellite companies, such as INTELSAT, SES and Telesat, said it hoped to review Ajit Pai's draft proposal.
However, Michael O’Rielly said that according to his communication with satellite companies, these companies are satisfied with the above plan, or more specifically, with the part of funds in the plan. "They see the committee's respect for their rights and express their appreciation for what they have done today. We had a lot of communication and conversation with them. "
New street research, a Wall Street investment firm, points out that according to the FCC's calculations, INTELSAT can get half of the $9.7 billion, or about $4.85 billion, paid for the accelerated removal of frequency bands. SES can get us $4 billion, Eutelsat can get us $467 million and Telesat can get us $374 million. Star one gets the smallest amount of $13.6 million.
Michael O’Rielly also pointed out that providing incentives to satellite companies to eliminate the IF band as soon as possible is crucial to 5g's development schedule. "If we have an auction in place, we can specify a schedule for the removal of frequency bands," he said.
At present, the above-mentioned C-band plan will be voted by all FCC members at a public meeting on February 28. Three of the FCC's five members are expected to support the plan, including Ajit Pai, Michael O’Rielly and Brandan Carr, so that the proposal can be adopted.
However, Ajit Pai's plan received different comments from some US officials. In particular, John Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the FCC budget, said he thought Pai's proposed funding for foreign satellite companies was too high.
But others were more positive about the proposal. Roger wicker, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and John Thune, chairman of the Subcommittee, said the FCC proposal was consistent with the bill proposed by the two senators last year, which required the U.S. Treasury to obtain at least half of the C-band auction revenue, but did not set restrictions on how much capital and return satellite operators could receive.
Despite differences of opinion, New Street Research believes that it is unlikely to propose any legislation to override the PAI directive. The company also believes that although there may be some litigation risks, any litigation is unlikely to substantially delay the process or change the payment structure.
According to new street research, C-band and CBRS spectrum auction will make a net profit of 50-60 billion US dollars. The company added that more money would be spent on the C-band because there was more spectrum available at the auction and it was more valuable to the four national operators competing.
CBRS spectrum may attract new entrants
Michael O’Rielly also set rules for the upcoming CBRS spectrum auction. At the FCC's upcoming meeting on February 28, the agency will vote on the application and bidding process of the CBRS spectrum auction, which will start on June 25, and release the 70MHz spectrum on the 3.5GHz band of the CBRS.
"This is the last decision before the auction," says Michael O’Rielly He said he expected the auction to attract many new entrants. "It's an innovator band. I'm curious to see what this band will bring us. "
It is expected that both large mobile operators and cable operators will participate in the CBRS spectrum auction.
