CCA’s Donovan: ‘It’s a pretty wild time in wireless’
The Competitive Carriers Association meets this week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for its Mobile Carriers Show, amid a policy environment in a fair amount of turmoil, particularly from the spectrum point of view.
“We have a full plate, there’s definitely a lot going on,” said Tim Donovan, CCA’s new president and CEO.
“It’s a pretty wild time in wireless, especially recent moments: The [Federal Communications Commission’s] spectrum auction authority expiring for the first time in 30 years,” Donovan continued. In the lead-up to the expiration, he said, “I don’t think anyone really thought we’d go over the cliff, but here we are. And in the meantime, stuck in that mix, at least for the time being, are hundreds of millions of dollars in licenses that T-Mobile won at the auction and could use immediately to expand service.” (See this April blog post from T-Mo’s Neville Ray on the impasse.)
“As the delays go on of carriers not getting their spectrum, it’s not only a T-Mobile issue,” Donovan said. “Anyone who is going to compete in a future auction has to have more reservations going forward, that between delays in getting access in previous auctions— including in CBRS and some of the challenges with C-Band—some of the confidence in auctions in general is not what it was before in terms of, if you show up to the auction, if you win, if you pay your money, that you’ll get your spectrum and you’ll be able to use it the way that was intended.”
CCA’s opening session on Wednesday morning focuses on spectrum, as it happens. “It’s a different discussion than we thought we’d be having … but it couldn’t be more timely to have that discussion right now as we do look at a re-set of spectrum and what it means going forward,” Donovan said. The conference agenda also has several other sessions focusing other major policy and practical issues that are relevant to competitive carriers, from loyalty program and smartphone repair to grappling with the commercialization of 5G in rural America.
In particular, Donovan said that the historic $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program “is really an exciting opportunity for our members, especially from the fixed wireless standpoint” and he noted that the so-called rip-and-replace program for banned Chinese equipment and services is still in process, though funding has fallen short of the needs that carriers have presented—to the tune of about $3 billion short. “Carriers are trying to figure out how they can do as much of the program as they can, while waiting on Congress to provide that funding,” Donovan said.
More details on the Mobile Carrier Show and agenda are here.
