The Federal Communications Commission has opened a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to consider updating the framework for licensing Educational Broadband Service (EBS) spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band, the latest effort over the past four decades to figure out how to more effectively use spectrum once originally allocated for educational broadcasting.
Much of the 2-GHz spectrum originally allocated for such purposes eventually was released for Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (fixed wireless for video entertainment). That has not generally proven to be a scalable use of the spectrum. So now the FCC wants to enable use of that spectrum to support 5G.
Failure of new markets to emerge on a sustainable basis is not new. The Personal Communications Service spectrum originally was seen as the way to create new services that would be less expensive than mobile service. That actually never proved feasible, as mobile service rapidly became more affordable, destroying the new potential market niche.
Instead, PCS proved the vehicle for more mobile competition, fueling market entry by firms that eventually became Sprint and T-Mobile US.
The latest move by the FCC is an effort to find sustainable uses for educational broadcasting spectrum.
The 2.5 GHz band (2496-2690 MHz) constitutes the single largest band of contiguous
spectrum below 3 gigahertz and is prime spectrum for next generation mobile operations,
including 5G.
The NPRM proposes to modernize and rationalize the EBS spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band to allow more flexible use. The item proposes to rationalize the service areas of existing EBS
licenses and to provide additional flexibility to current and future EBS licensees.
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