The FCC has reportedly voted 4-0 to allow FirstNet to administer a 50MHz chunk of spectrum in the 4.9GHz band. According to one analyst, that will give AT&T a step up over its rivals among public safety customers.
According to reports, the FCC has voted to transfer control of a portion of the 4.9GHz spectrum band to FirstNet, which operates a network for public safety users in conjunction with AT&T.
The vote would represent a major setback to Verizon and T-Mobile, which had urged the FCC to give public safety users direct access to the band, instead of routing the band through FirstNet.
“In an era in which wireless use is growing rapidly and the spectrum pipeline for midband spectrum is limited, AT&T is now better positioned to gain a significant advantage over its rivals, but, as is true for all important regulatory proceedings, the courts have the final word, and the FCC blessing is worth less than in the past,” summarized Blair Levin, a policy adviser to New Street Research and a former high-level FCC official, in a note to investors Tuesday.
Levin reported that the FCC approved the move in a 4-0 vote, with FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez recusing herself. Paul Kirby – a senior editor at TR Daily and a longtime Washington, DC, insider – also posted to social media that the FCC approved the measure with a 4-0 vote. Officials at the FCC declined to comment on the topic to Light Reading.
But later on Tuesday, the FCC released the details of its new order on the 4.9 GHz band. Among the agency’s stipulations, “FirstNet may be permitted to use unassigned spectrum in the 4.9 GHz band as part of its nationwide public safety broadband network (NPSBN) in a manner that protects incumbent operations.”
Importantly, Levin argued that the value of the 50MHz chunk of spectrum in the 4.9GHz band could be worth between $3 billion and $14 billion, depending on the usage limits the FCC places on signals in the band. Regardless, the spectrum would now be “available for exclusive commercial use by AT&T at no cost to the company,” he noted.
Plenty of opposition
Verizon and T-Mobile had been urging the FCC against such a move.
“A giveaway that would advantage a single provider, and one with no competitive process, would undermine the competitive wireless marketplace and US spectrum policy,” Verizon wrote to the FCC this summer.
But AT&T officials – including CEO John Stankey – argued there is broad support among police, firefighters and other public safety users for FirstNet to manage the band.
“T-Mobile and Verizon did not push as hard [against AT&T] as they might have,” Levin wrote Tuesday. He noted that both Verizon and T-Mobile hope to win FCC approvals for their own spectrum transactions, including with UScellular, and therefore do not wish to engage in a battle with the FCC over the 4.9GHz band.
Also: “They think their side will win in court,” he wrote.
Levin said he expects T-Mobile and Verizon to sue the FCC to prevent FirstNet from administering the 4.9GHz band. He also suggested the topic may ultimately need Congressional approvals.
Meanwhile, both Verizon and T-Mobile continue to battle AT&T and FirstNet in the marketplace.
For example, T-Mobile recently launched “T-Priority,” a network slice for first responders supported by T-Mobile’s 5G standalone core network. The offering stands against Verizon Frontline and AT&T’s FirstNet.
