Federal Communications Commission FCC 18-181
licensing policies, as well as interference and technical rules.
100
Increasing the total supply of spectrum
bandwidth that the Commission allocates and licenses to mobile wireless service providers can increase
network capacity and reduce the degree of frequency reuse required to achieve a given level of
capacity.
101
Therefore, spectrum policies affect the ability of incumbents and potential entrants to access
spectrum and to build out or expand capacity. The efforts of the Commission to allocate more mid-band
and millimeter wave spectrum to meet consumer demand for mobile broadband services, and to fuel
innovation and investment in the mobile wireless market, are detailed in Sections III.A.2 and IV below.
32. Subject to the Commission’s approval, licensees may transfer licenses, in whole or in part
(through partitioning and/or disaggregation), on the secondary market.
102
In reviewing proposed transfers
of control of spectrum, the Commission uses an initial spectrum screen
103
to help identify, for case-by-
case review, local markets where changes in spectrum holdings resulting from the transaction may be of
particular concern.
104
In the past decade, in the context of its review of secondary market transactions, the
Commission periodically has determined that additional spectrum was suitable and available for mobile
wireless use, and therefore subject to inclusion in the spectrum screen.
105
The current suitable and
available spectrum included in the spectrum screen is shown in Figure A-23:
100
Sixteenth Report, 28 FCC Rcd at 3765, para.75.
101
Rappaport, T. S., Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice (2
nd
ed.), Prentice Hall, 2002, at 58.
102
As part of its secondary market policies, the Commission also permits mobile wireless licensees to lease all or a
portion of their spectrum usage rights for any length of time within the license term and over any geographic area
encompassed by the license.
103
The Commission includes spectrum that it finds is suitable and available for the provision of mobile wireless
services. See, e.g., Mobile Spectrum Holdings Report and Order, 29 FCC Rcd at 6169, para. 71; See, e.g.,
Applications of SprintCom, Inc., Shenandoah Personal Communications, LLC, and NTELOS Holdings Corp. for
Consent To Assign Licenses and Spectrum Lease Authorizations and To Transfer Control of Spectrum Lease
Authorizations and an International Section 214 Authorization, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 31 FCC Rcd
3631, 3638-39, para. 17 (WTB, IB 2016) (Sprint-Shentel-NTELOS Order).
104
See, e.g., Mobile Spectrum Holdings Report and Order, 29 FCC Rcd at 6221-22, para. 225; see also AT&T-Leap
Order, 29 FCC Rcd at 2752-53, paras. 39, 41. In the case of transfer of business units, the Commission’s initial HHI
screen identifies, for further case-by-case market analysis, those markets in which, post-transaction: (1) the HHI
would be greater than 2800 and the change in HHI would be 100 or greater; or (2) the change in HHI would be 250
or greater, regardless of the level of the HHI. See, e.g., Sprint-Shentel-NTELOS Order, 31 FCC Rcd at 3639, para.
17 & n.50; AT&T-Leap Order, 29 FCC Rcd at 2753, para. 41 & n.140. In addition, the Commission determined in
the
Mobile Spectrum Holdings Report and Order that increased aggregation of below-1-GHz spectrum
would be treated as an “enhanced factor” under its case-by-case review of license transfers
if post-
transaction the acquiring entity would hold approximately one-third or more of the currently suitable and available
spectrum below 1 GHz. See, e.g., Mobile Spectrum Holdings Report and Order, 29 FCC Rcd at 6240, paras. 282-
88.
105
Incentive Auction Closing and Channel Reassignment, Public Notice, 32 FCC Rcd 2786 (WTB 2017); Sprint-
Shentel-NTELOS Order, 31 FCC Rcd at 3637-38, paras. 15-16; Mobile Spectrum Holdings Report and Order, 29
FCC Rcd at 6172-90, paras. 82-134; Applications of AT&T Mobility Spectrum LLC, New Cingular Wireless PCS,
LLC, Comcast Corporation, Horizon Wi-Com, LLC, NextWave Wireless, Inc., and San Diego Gas & Electric
Company for Consent To Assign and Transfer Licenses, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 27 FCC Rcd 16459,
16470-71, para. 31 (2012); Amendment of Part 27 of the Commission’s Rules to Govern the Operation of Wireless
Communications Services in the 2.3 GHz Band, Report and Order, 25 FCC Rcd 11710, 11711, para. 1 (2010);
Applications of Sprint Nextel Corporation and Clearwire Corporation for Consent To Transfer Control of Licenses,
Leases, and Authorizations, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 23 FCC Rcd 17570, 17598-99, paras. 70, 72 (2008);
Applications of AT&T Inc. and Dobson Communications Corporation for Consent To Transfer Control of Licenses
and Authorizations, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 22 FCC Rcd 20295, 20307-08, para. 17 (2007).