More mid-band spectrum in the 2.5-GHz region now is being allocated to U.S. tribal entities, with additional spectrum to be made available after those assignments are made before August 2020. Unallocated spectrum then will be sold by the Federal Communications Commission.
The first 2.5-GHz licenses being auctioned by the Federal Communications Commission will go to federally-recognized American Indian tribes. The spectrum available in this window is a portion of the 2.5 GHz band, consisting of three different channels: one 49.5 megahertz channel, one 50.5 megahertz channel, and one 17.5 megahertz channel. Tribal entities may apply for one, two, or all three of these channels, depending on availability.
The 2.5 GHz band, which extends from 2496 to 2690 MHz, includes 20 channels designated for Educational Broadband Service, 13 channels designated for commercial Broadband Radio Service (BRS), and a number of small guard band channels. The Federal Communications Commission now plans to allow secondary market transactions and an auction to repurpose that spectrum.
Sprint owns over 110 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum in most markets, as a result of its acquisition of Clearwire. In fact, Sprint (now T-Mobile) holds nearly 80 percent of the licenses for 2.5GHz EBS and BRS spectrum, which equates to an average of 150 MHz of capacity in 2500 MHz nationwide.
The new T-Mobile will hold around 160 MHz on average of 2.5 GHz mid-band spectrum in the top 100 markets, and potentially as much as 194 MHz.
The FCC move to commercialize the band essentially allows Sprint to keep all of its 2.5GHz spectrum, and paves the way for the rest of the band to be auctioned off at some unspecified point in the future.
The auction rules do not appear to allow winning bidders to force incumbent EBS users off the spectrum, a situation that could, again, favor Sprint, which has been subletting some of that capacity from educational institutions. For that reason, some observers believe Sprint will not face competition from AT&T and Verizon for the unallocated spectrum blocks.
Some of us believe fixed wireless will be the use for much of that 2.5-GHz spectrum. An internet service provider that has about 40 MHz of that spectrum (possibly 114 MHz or so in total that is not controlled by Sprint), operating in a rural area without lots of line-of-sight obstructions, might be able to deliver speeds of over 230 Mbps downstream, with a /25 Mbps return at distances of about four miles, near line of sight.
At perhaps eight miles, speeds of 100 Mbps downstream, with 20 Mbps return, should generally be possible. At about 18 miles distance speeds might reach 25 Mbps downstream, with return of about 3 Mbps or so.
A, B, C, D, and G channel groups,8 with each group comprised of three 5.5 megahertz wide channels in the lower or upper band segment and one 6 megahertz-wide channel in the middle band segment.9 Currently, there are 1,300 EBS licensees holding 2,193 licenses.
Only specified entities are eligible to hold an EBS license, specifically (1) accredited public and private educational institutions, (2) governmental organizations engaged in the formal education of enrolled students, and (3) nonprofit organizations whose purpose is educational and include providing educational and instructional television materials to accredited institutions and governmental organizations.
Our rules permit EBS licensees to lease their excess capacity to non-educational entities to use for non-educational purposes.12 And most EBS licensees do so. There are 2,087 active leases of EBS spectrum, compared with 2,193 licenses.
The 2.5 GHz spectrum remains largely unassigned in much of the rest of the country, especially in rural areas west of the Mississippi River.
In general, each EBS license is based on a circular Geographic Service Area (GSA) with a 35-mile radius (with an area of approximately 3,850 square miles).
Once the rules become effective, both incumbent EBS licenses and new EBS licenses once issued will be free of the eligibility restrictions, and EBS licensees may assign or transfer their licenses freely.
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