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Earlier this month, the FCC announced that they finally released (granted) the CBRS PAL licenses won in Auction 105 by Cross Telephone Company. I thought that this would be a good opportunity to show how the Transactions module in our Web Spectrum Viewer can be used to determine the status of pending transactions.
As an introduction, our Transaction module includes all of the transactions affecting the mobile carrier and millimeter wave spectrum bands, going back to 2014. We capture each of these transactions when they are posted on the FCC Daily Digest and update their status monthly until they are granted.
To find the unissued CBRS licenses, we set the filters to only include the CBRS spectrum transactions, for new licenses, that still have a pending FCC status.
After setting these filters, the results can be exported as an Excel file.
Finally, since the Transaction export includes a record for each license that a carrier will receive, I am going to apply a pivot table in Excel, to summarize the 2857 matching records. In the table below, you can see the bidding names for the companies that have not received their CBRS licenses and the count of their outstanding licenses. Cross Telephone is still on this list, because the transactions list is updated monthly with the currently list indicating all of the transactions through the end of November. The Cross Telephone licenses were granted on December 10, 2021 so they will be reflected in the January transaction file update.
Lightreading recently posted an article about Cogeco's entrance into the Canadian mobile market places initially as a MVNO while building their own network. To view Cogeco's we are going to present a couple of views of Cogeco's spectrum holdings from our current Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool (Canada).
In Lightreading's article, Cogeco indicated that they purchased 3.5GHz spectrum licenses covering 91% of their broadband footprint. Our licensed population analysis module provides an accounting for how much of the Canadian population can be reached with Cogeco's spectrum. Cogeco owns spectrum in 2 additional spectrum bands (WCS and BRS) providing licenses over 0.1% of Canada's population and 15.4% respectively. With their 3.5GHz spectrum, covering 91% of their broadband footprint only translates to roughly 30% of the Canadian population.
Cogeco Licensed Population by Frequency Band:
Frequency Band Ownership:
When we look at Frequency Band ownership for the 3.5GHz spectrum, Cogeco only controls 4% of the MHz-POPs in this band. Clearly Bell Canada, Rogers, and Telus have large bandwidths in each market to enable faster 5G connections.
National Weighted Average Spectrum Depth:
When we look at the National Averages for spectrum depth, Cogeco only has 12MHz of upper mid band spectrum (WCS, BRS, and 3.5GHz) which is less than 10% of what the national carriers average.
It has been just over 6 months since we compiled the status of the tribal licenses that were filed by September 2, 2020. It is important to see the FCC's progress in processing these applications due to their impact on the EBS Auction. To reiterate, these tribal boundary applications have the first rights to the EBS whitespace areas but their rights are secondary to the existing licensee rights. In our previous post, we included the EBS A1 license areas with the granted tribal areas, highlighting areas where tribes would not be able to claim access to the EBS A1 channel over the entirety of their filed tribal area.
FCC Tribal Application Status
| Status | 5/5/2021 | 10/31/2021 |
| Granted | 201 | 273 |
| Pending | 175 | 94 |
| Inactive | 7 | |
| Dismissed | 18 | 20 |
| Total | 394 | 394 |
In our most recent blog post, we highlighted the challenges faced by T-Mobile in two markets where they don't control parts of the EBS spectrum (channels), that limit their deployment of large 5G channels across each urban market. Where that post focused on the effects of owning or not owning a specific channel across a geography, the EBS Spectrum Control Maps below provide a more general look at the percent of EBS spectrum that T-Mobile owns, the FCC owns, and Other Carriers own. To complete this analysis we used the MHz-POPs analysis from our EBS Auction Tool, combined with our analysis of T-Mobile's EBS MHz-POPs using the same geographic licensing database.
While these maps provide insights on the EBS band in totality, the individual issues faced by T-Mobile in Orange County, CA don't strongly appear in these maps because they control all of the EBS channels except the G channels meaning they still control a high percentage of the EBS spectrum in Orange County. For the Chicago market, the whitespace EBS challenges can be seen with Lake County receiving a light green and McHenry receiving an orange.
Recent discussions around the wireless industry have included opining on why T-Mobile acquired 40MHz of C-band spectrum when they control so much 2.5GHz spectrum. Although the 2.5GHz spectrum is a valuable spectrum asset, there are two challenges to this spectrum that are not well understood by the industry and we believe that T-Mobile’s C-band purchases were a strategic purchase to provide a path to overcome these two spectrum licensing limitations.
License Areas Controlled by the FCC:
The first limitation is unlicensed or whitespace areas in core urban markets. To highlight these areas, we are going to start with some whitespace analysis that we have developed as part of our EBS Auction Tool. In this analysis, the percentage of the population that is available in the whitespace area is indicated for each EBS channel in a county. We have also calculated the percentage of the population that is contained with T-Mobile license area and the percentage of the population that is contained within the license area of any other carrier. In the image below we are showing the percentage of the population under T-Mobile’s control and under the FCC control (whitespace) for the entire 2.5GHz frequency band including both the EBS and BRS channels. The color ranges start at 0% with red, 50% with yellow, and 100% with green. In our initial analysis we will be focusing on the first auction channel (black box) in the six counties that make up the Chicago CMA market. We prefer to use the CMA market structure to evaluate urban areas because they include only the most populated counties in each urban area.
2.5GHz Full-band Population Percentage View (Chicago):
2.5GHz – 1st EBS Auction Channel Population Percentage View (Chicago):
In the top section of the chart above, it is apparent that T-Mobile controls all of the 1st EBS Auction channel in Cook, DuPage, and Will counties but they only control all of the A1-A2-A3 channels in Kane County. Fortunately, the parts of 1st EBS Auction channel that they don’t own will be available in the Auction 108. The available whitespace is indicated in the lower half of the chart. Looking at McHenry County, 100% of the C1-C2 channels will be available in the EBS Auction (108).
These charts highlights the percentage of the population available either for T-Mobile’s licenses or for the FCC’s whitespace. Next we will look at the geographic constraints of T-Mobile’s licenses and the shape of each county’s whitespace area. In the map below we are able to show the license areas for the A1-A2-A3 channels because the license areas of interest are identical. It is apparent that T-Mobile has the rights to operate the A1-A2-A3 channels completely across the counties in the Chicago CMA except Lake and McHenry.
Licensing Map – A1-A2-A3 (Chicago):
Looking at the B1-B2-B3 & C3 channels, a whitespace area exists covering almost all of Kane County along with similar whitespace areas in McHenry and Lake counties.
Licensing Map – B1-B2-B3 & C3 (Chicago):
Our final map delineates the largest limitations to the areas that T-Mobile can deploy the C1-C2 channels in the Chicago CMA market. Their base stations located in the gray areas of Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties cannot use the C1-C2 channels.
Licensing Map – C1-C2 (Chicago):
Looking again at the T-Mobile’s control of the 1st EBS auction channel we can highlight the deployment limitations that the whitespace area presents. Since the 1st Auction channel is 49.5MHz, this chart indicates that T-Mobile can deploy roughly a 50MHz channel on any sites in Cook, DuPage, and Will counties. In Kane County they are limited to a 15MHz channel in the available 16.5MHz of spectrum. To have a consistent deployment of a 50MHz channel across Chicago, they would need to purchase the whitespaces areas for each of these channels in each of the Chicago counties.
Looking again at the T-Mobile’s control of the 1st EBS auction channel we can highlight the deployment limitations that the whitespace area presents. Since the 1st Auction channel is 49.5MHz, this chart indicates that T-Mobile can deploy roughly a 50MHz channel on any sites in Cook, DuPage, and Will counties. In Kane County they are limited to a 15MHz channel in the available 16.5MHz of spectrum. To have a consistent deployment of a 50MHz channel across Chicago, they would need to purchase the whitespaces areas for each of these channels in each of the Chicago counties.
The last perspective that we want to share on the Chicago market is the actual population in each of the whitespace areas for each county. Although we thought that 100% of the population was available for each channel in Cook County, the whitespace population table indicates that there is a very small population and small geographic area that is a whitespace within Cook County for the B1-B2-B3-C1-C2-C3 channels.
2.5GHz – 1st EBS Auction Channel Population View - Whitespace (Chicago):
License Areas Controlled by Other Carriers:
The second limitation is spectrum blocks that are controlled by other carriers in core urban markets. To highlight these areas we are going to look at the four counties in the Los Angeles CMA market. For the Population Percentage Chart below, we are including the population percentage for other carriers rather than the whitespace percentages.
2.5GHz Full-band Population Percentage View (Los Angeles):
2.5GHz – 3rd EBS Auction Channel Population Percentage View (Los Angeles):
In the Top View it is apparent that T-Mobile already controls the spectrum across all of the BRS channels (gray) in Los Angeles County but they are missing roughly 10% of the population for the G1-G2-G3 channels. In between the two BRS blocks of spectrum are the K guard band channels. The ownership of these guard band channels mirrors the ownership of the primary channel e.g. G1=KG1. The BRS channels and the EBS G1-G2-G3 channels total to 87MHz of spectrum, providing T-Mobile the ability to deploy an 80MHz NR channel throughout most of Los Angeles County. Unfortunately in Orange County, another carrier owns 98% of the G1-G2-G3 channels limiting T-Mobile to a 10MHz channel in the first BRS block (F4-E4) and a 50MHz channel in the second BRS block (BRS2-E123-F123-H123).
Los Angeles CMA Counties:
In looking at the G1-G2-G3 licensing map, you can see that there are actually three licenses that T-Mobile does not control in the Los Angeles CMA Market.
Licensing Map – G1-G2-G3:
2.5GHz – 3rd Auction Channel Population View – Other Carriers (Los Angeles):
The Other Carriers Population percentage view indicates the large licensed population that is controlled by other carriers and would need to be purchased by T-Mobile.
Conclusion:
With these two examples we have shown that missing 2.5GHz spectrum either due to it being unlicensed or being controlled by another carrier present challenges that likely limit T-Mobile’s largest 5G channel size to a subset of each urban market. We believe that T-Mobile’s participation in the C-band and the current 3.45GHz auction was to “future” proof their ability to offer large channel sizes in the upper mid-band spectrum. With either the C-band spectrum or the 3.45GHz spectrum, T-Mobile could use carrier aggregation to achieve 100MHz effective channel sizes even in areas where their 2.5GHz spectrum is more limited.
On July 23rd, the FCC granted most of the C-band (Auction 107) licenses. This provided us the first opportunity to see how the FCC was going to handle the interim A block licenses that will transition into the permanent license on December 31, 2023. The FCC provided call signs for each of the permanent licenses as well as call signs for each of AT&T's interim licenses.
These interim and future designations allow us to highlight a unique capability of our Web Spectrum Viewer and Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool. For each block of spectrum we capture the spectrum licensee and the carrier that may lease the spectrum. This information indicates the current operator. Typically the current operator is the future operator, unless a pending transaction allocates that spectrum block to a different operator. We are using this database capability to reflect the interim C-band licenses with the current operator field and the permanent operator with the future operator field. You can see the AT&T interim allocations below as we are displaying the "Current" Spectrum Ownership Grid.
Current View:
The future allocations are seen in the Future View below.
Future View:
Another way that this current and future ownership data can be seen is in our Spectrum Survey. The Spectrum Survey provides the call sign, current operator, and future operator for all of the frequency bands in a selected county.
Spectrum Survey:
Allnet Insights will be hosting EBS Auction Update Webinars throughout July. The webinar will highlight how the existing license areas are determined and how the corresponding unlicensed areas (whitespaces) are calculated. The update will also include an overview of the available licenses by county. Below are the Webinar times. Clicking a date will take you to a sign up page where you will receive the webinar link. Your contact information will not be visible to the other webinar attendees.
On January 1, 2021 the FCC announced the license inventory for the EBS Whitespace Auction. On May 17th, the FCC announced an extension to the Auction comment period due to a series of filings outlining issues with the initial inventory list and the complex process to calculate the whitespace license areas.
In this post, we will compare the auction inventory with our EBS Auction Tool and accompanying maps.
Below is the inventory data that the FCC provided for the 1st Auction Channel in Douglas County, NV. Douglas County is just south of Reno, NV.
This FCC data would lead a carrier to believe that a 49.5MHz channel covering 46,997 people could be purchased during Auction 108. From the image below, Channel 1 is a composite of nine currently licensed channels. To determine the number of people (POPS) that the 1st Channel covers, requires evaluating the licensed areas for each of these 9 sub channels.
Let's first look at the licensed area for the A1 channel surrounding Douglas County. From the image below, only the southern point of Douglas County is not currently licensed, thus that area and its population would be available if a carrier purchased the 1st Auction channel for Douglas County.
EBS A1 License Area:
The available whitespace for the A1 channel can be seen below from our Web Spectrum Viewer - EBS Auction subscription.
EBS A1 Whitespace Area:
Next we will look at the A2 channel which has a different license area than the A1 channel, thus a different (and larger) whitespace area.
EBS A2 License Area:
EBS A2 Whitespace Area:
Our last example will be the B2 channel which has the most whitespace area for any of the Douglas County sub channels.
EBS B2 Whitespace Area:
The geographic areas that can be purchased are important so you can visualize the areas that you can serve, but the population available in each of these whitespace areas is necessary to calculate the economic opportunity for each license, thus its value.
Our EBS Auction Opportunities Tool calculates the population available in each of the whitespace areas for each auction channel. The value on the far right of this table represents the total MHz-POPs available.
Population View: 
The FCC's inventory indicates that there are 2,326,352 MHzPOPs for auction in this channel but there are on 344,398 MHzPOPs available, 15% of the FCC's value.
In the EBS Auction Opportunities Tool we also display the same data in a population percentage view, where the available population can be seen as a percentage of the county population.
Population % View:
Soon we should be hearing about the timing and procedures for Auction 108: 2.5GHz Band. This auction is also been discussed as the EBS (Educational Broadcast Service) Whitespace auction since it is offering the unlicensed spectrum that was previously reserved for educational groups. In the maps below, we are going to use the data from our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to highlight the current status of both 2.5GHz sub-bands; Educational Broadcast Service (EBS) and Broadband Radio Service (BRS).
The first map indicates the counties where T-Mobile has up to 80MHz of 2.5GHz spectrum and the counties where it exceeds 80MHz of 2.5GHz spectrum. This cutoff highlights the markets where T-Mobile spectrum is limited to the BRS (owned) spectrum versus the markets where they have traditional leases to expand their spectrum resources into the EBS band.
The remaining maps are focused exclusively on the EBS spectrum band. This second map highlights the counties where more than 50% of the EBS spectrum (measured in MHz-POPs) is controlled by the FCC and available in Auction 108.
Today was the cutoff for comments on the EBS Whitespace Auction procedures, so let's take a look at the current status of the EBS Tribal applications, which have a priority on claiming EBS white space. From the chart below, 44% of the applications are still in process. Most concerning are the 83 applications that have been filed but have not seen any action by the FCC. Typically applications are moved to a pending status within a few weeks but these applications have been on file since 3Q - 2020.
| Tribal Applications | Status |
| Filed | 394 |
| Granted | 201 |
| Pending | 92 |
| Dismissed | 18 |
| No Action | 83 |
Below is a map of the granted tribal boundaries overlaid with the EBS A1 channel license areas. Each of these tribal applications has requested access to the first EBS auction channel (49.5MHz). Any tribal areas that extend into these license areas will not have access to the A1 channel (5.5MHz) in the overlap area.
Last year we provided an FCC Spectrum Screen Analysis reflecting the effects of the EBS reconfiguration, the CBRS allocation, and the C-band allocation. Two weeks ago the FCC has revised the Sub-6 GHz spectrum screen through their 3.45GHz rulemaking.
In the chart below we reflect the spectrum depth allotments that are included in our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool. The links under in the frequency column will open the FCC spectrum screen documents and the comment field indicates the paragraphs where the spectrum screen is discussed.
The Allnet Spectrum Depth column indicates the spectrum allocations that we use in all of our typical spectrum depth reporting (county, CMA, PEA, State, and National). The FCC / Allnet Spectrum Screen allocations reflect the allocations that we use in our County, CMA market, and PEA Market Spectrum Screen columns.
| Band | Frequency | Allnet Spectrum Depth | FCC / Allnet Spectrum Screen | Comments |
| Low Band | 600 MHz | 70 | 70 | |
| Low Band | 700 MHz | 90 | 70 | First Net Spectrum not included |
| Low Band | Cellular | 50 | 50 | |
| Low Band | SMR | 14 | 14 | |
| Lw Mid Band | PCS | 140 | 140 | Includes H-block |
| Lw Mid Band | AWS-1 | 90 | 90 | |
| Lw Mid Band | AWS-3 | 65 | 65 | |
| Lw Mid Band | AWS-4 | 40 | 40 | |
| Up Mid Band | WCS | 30 | 20 | |
| Up Mid Band | BRS | 77.5 | 67.5 | BRS1 and BRS K guard bands not included |
| Up Mid Band | EBS | 116.5 | 116.5 | Paragraph 98-100 |
| Up Mid Band | 3.45GHz | 100 | 100 | Paragraph 101 |
| Up Mid Band | CBRS | 0 | 0 | Paragraph 107 |
| Up Mid Band | C-Band | 280 | 280 | Paragraph 83 |
| Total MHz | 1163 | 1123 |
To determine the overall Spectrum Screen value, the FCC divides the spectrum screen allotment (1123) by 3 and rounds to the nearest 10MHz. This makes the new spectrum screen including the 100MHz of 3.45GHz spectrum, 370 MHz.
In the Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool we have three views into the Spectrum Screen. They are a County Analysis View, a Cellular Market Area (CMA) View, and a Partial Economic Area (PEA) View.
County Analysis View:
In this view, each of the national carriers spectrum screen values are displayed along with the amount of spectrum in that county controlled by the FCC. The FCC value predominately represents the 3.45GHz spectrum allocation, but there is some EBS spectrum (whitespace) that is also allocated to the FCC.
PEA Market Analysis View:
The FCC announced the final rules for the new 3.45GHz band on March 19, 2021. With our April 2021 release, we updated our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool to include the 3.45GHz frequency band in each of the analysis modules. The 10 - 10MHz channels appear in our Spectrum Grid as a part of NR Band 77. In the image below, we highlight the FCC's ownership of each of the channels (pre-auction) by county.
Honolulu County has a NA (Not Available) code for both the 3.45GHz spectrum and the C-band spectrum since neither band in available in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Looking at the National Band Ownership Charts, we can see that this unavailability affects 2% of the MHz-POPs or 2% of the US Population (~6.6M).
In the County Analysis Module the spectrum depth values for eight selected carriers are displayed. This image highlights each carriers 3.45GHz, CBRS, and C-band holdings.
Below is a more detailed description of our Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tools and the analysis capabilities it supports.
On March 15th, the FCC granted the first CBRS PAL licenses to 222 carriers. In total the FCC issued nearly 17,500 PAL licenses in this initial group. To view these licenses in our Web Spectrum Viewer, choose our Upper Mid-band (Up-Mid Band) in the band menu and chose the CBRS in the sub-band menu.
To find PAL licenses for specific markets, use our geographic filters. To find call signs for the Dallas/Fort Worth market, chose CMA Name in the Region menu and start typing Dallas in the Regional Values menu.
In this view you can see the PAL licenses that each carrier controls for each county in the Dallas/Fort Worth CMA market. From this view there are two ways to view the call sign for each license. The first way is to click on the spectrum grid cell to reveal the call sign details for that cell. The detail below is for the CBRS-A channel that Charter controls in Dallas county.
| Attachment A | |||||||||||
| Auction 108 License Inventory Subject to the Results of the Rural Tribal Priority Window | |||||||||||
| Proposed Bidding Units, Upfront Payments, and Minimum Bids | |||||||||||
| State/ Territory |
County Name | FIPS Code |
Channel | Item ID | Band- width |
MEA | Population (2010) |
Subject to Small Market Cap | Bidding Units |
Upfront Payment |
Minimum Bid |
| AL | Autauga | 1001 | 1 | AL-001-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 54,571 | Yes | 80 | $8,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Autauga | 1001 | 2 | AL-001-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 54,571 | Yes | 80 | $8,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Autauga | 1001 | 3 | AL-001-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 54,571 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $5,000 |
| AL | Baldwin | 1003 | 1 | AL-003-1 | 49.5 | 27 | 182,265 | No | 200 | $20,000 | $50,000 |
| AL | Baldwin | 1003 | 2 | AL-003-2 | 50.5 | 27 | 182,265 | No | 200 | $20,000 | $50,000 |
| AL | Baldwin | 1003 | 3 | AL-003-3 | 16.5 | 27 | 182,265 | No | 90 | $9,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Barbour | 1005 | 1 | AL-005-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 27,457 | Yes | 40 | $4,000 | $8,000 |
| AL | Barbour | 1005 | 2 | AL-005-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 27,457 | Yes | 40 | $4,000 | $8,000 |
| AL | Barbour | 1005 | 3 | AL-005-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 27,457 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| AL | Bibb | 1007 | 1 | AL-007-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 22,915 | Yes | 30 | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| AL | Bibb | 1007 | 2 | AL-007-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 22,915 | Yes | 30 | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| AL | Bibb | 1007 | 3 | AL-007-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 22,915 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| AL | Blount | 1009 | 1 | AL-009-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 57,322 | Yes | 80 | $8,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Blount | 1009 | 2 | AL-009-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 57,322 | Yes | 80 | $8,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Blount | 1009 | 3 | AL-009-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 57,322 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $5,000 |
| AL | Bullock | 1011 | 1 | AL-011-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 10,914 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $3,000 |
| AL | Bullock | 1011 | 2 | AL-011-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 10,914 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $3,000 |
| AL | Bullock | 1011 | 3 | AL-011-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 10,914 | Yes | 5 | $500 | $1,000 |
| AL | Butler | 1013 | 1 | AL-013-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 20,947 | Yes | 30 | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| AL | Butler | 1013 | 2 | AL-013-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 20,947 | Yes | 30 | $3,000 | $6,000 |
| AL | Butler | 1013 | 3 | AL-013-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 20,947 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| AL | Chambers | 1017 | 2 | AL-017-2 | 50.5 | 8 | 34,215 | Yes | 50 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Cherokee | 1019 | 1 | AL-019-1 | 49.5 | 8 | 25,989 | Yes | 30 | $3,000 | $7,000 |
| AL | Cherokee | 1019 | 2 | AL-019-2 | 50.5 | 8 | 25,989 | Yes | 30 | $3,000 | $7,000 |
| AL | Cherokee | 1019 | 3 | AL-019-3 | 16.5 | 8 | 25,989 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| AL | Chilton | 1021 | 1 | AL-021-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 43,643 | Yes | 60 | $6,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Chilton | 1021 | 2 | AL-021-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 43,643 | Yes | 60 | $6,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Chilton | 1021 | 3 | AL-021-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 43,643 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Choctaw | 1023 | 1 | AL-023-1 | 49.5 | 26 | 13,859 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Choctaw | 1023 | 2 | AL-023-2 | 50.5 | 26 | 13,859 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Choctaw | 1023 | 3 | AL-023-3 | 16.5 | 26 | 13,859 | Yes | 6 | $600 | $1,000 |
| AL | Clarke | 1025 | 1 | AL-025-1 | 49.5 | 27 | 25,833 | No | 30 | $3,000 | $7,000 |
| AL | Clarke | 1025 | 2 | AL-025-2 | 50.5 | 27 | 25,833 | No | 30 | $3,000 | $7,000 |
| AL | Clarke | 1025 | 3 | AL-025-3 | 16.5 | 27 | 25,833 | No | 10 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
| AL | Clay | 1027 | 1 | AL-027-1 | 49.5 | 8 | 13,932 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Clay | 1027 | 2 | AL-027-2 | 50.5 | 8 | 13,932 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Clay | 1027 | 3 | AL-027-3 | 16.5 | 8 | 13,932 | Yes | 6 | $600 | $1,000 |
| AL | Cleburne | 1029 | 2 | AL-029-2 | 50.5 | 8 | 14,972 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Coffee | 1031 | 1 | AL-031-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 49,948 | Yes | 70 | $7,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Coffee | 1031 | 2 | AL-031-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 49,948 | Yes | 70 | $7,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Coffee | 1031 | 3 | AL-031-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 49,948 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Conecuh | 1035 | 1 | AL-035-1 | 49.5 | 27 | 13,228 | No | 10 | $1,000 | $3,000 |
| AL | Conecuh | 1035 | 2 | AL-035-2 | 50.5 | 27 | 13,228 | No | 10 | $1,000 | $3,000 |
| AL | Conecuh | 1035 | 3 | AL-035-3 | 16.5 | 27 | 13,228 | No | 6 | $600 | $1,000 |
| AL | Coosa | 1037 | 1 | AL-037-1 | 49.5 | 8 | 11,539 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $3,000 |
| AL | Coosa | 1037 | 2 | AL-037-2 | 50.5 | 8 | 11,539 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $3,000 |
| AL | Coosa | 1037 | 3 | AL-037-3 | 16.5 | 8 | 11,539 | Yes | 5 | $500 | $1,000 |
| AL | Covington | 1039 | 1 | AL-039-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 37,765 | Yes | 50 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Covington | 1039 | 2 | AL-039-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 37,765 | Yes | 50 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Covington | 1039 | 3 | AL-039-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 37,765 | Yes | 10 | $1,000 | $3,000 |
| AL | Crenshaw | 1041 | 1 | AL-041-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 13,906 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Crenshaw | 1041 | 2 | AL-041-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 13,906 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Crenshaw | 1041 | 3 | AL-041-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 13,906 | Yes | 6 | $600 | $1,000 |
| AL | Cullman | 1043 | 1 | AL-043-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 80,406 | Yes | 100 | $10,000 | $20,000 |
| AL | Cullman | 1043 | 2 | AL-043-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 80,406 | Yes | 100 | $10,000 | $20,000 |
| AL | Cullman | 1043 | 3 | AL-043-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 80,406 | Yes | 30 | $3,000 | $7,000 |
| AL | Dale | 1045 | 1 | AL-045-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 50,251 | Yes | 70 | $7,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Dale | 1045 | 2 | AL-045-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 50,251 | Yes | 70 | $7,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Dale | 1045 | 3 | AL-045-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 50,251 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| AL | Dallas | 1047 | 1 | AL-047-1 | 49.5 | 24 | 43,820 | Yes | 60 | $6,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Dallas | 1047 | 2 | AL-047-2 | 50.5 | 24 | 43,820 | Yes | 60 | $6,000 | $10,000 |
| AL | Dallas | 1047 | 3 | AL-047-3 | 16.5 | 24 | 43,820 | Yes | 20 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
Educational Broadband Service (EBS) is part of the US 2.5GHz spectrum allocation along with the Broadband Radio Service (BRS). These two types of spectrum fall between 2495MHz and 2690MHz on the 2.5GHz band allocation.
EBS spectrum has traditionally been owned by educators, including colleges, universities, K-12 school districts, and para-church organizations. Originally, the EBS and BRS spectrum licensees were assigned 35-mile licensing circles around a set of coordinates representing the original broadcasting site. In 2009, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held an auction for the areas of unlicensed BRS spectrum (all BRS spectrum outside of the licensed circles). However, unlicensed EBS spectrum has never been made available to the public, and thus remains under FCC control. This unlicensed spectrum is precisely what will be auctioned off in early 2021.
Given that the EBS Whitespace Auction is focused on the unlicensed area surrounding existing licenses, a basic understanding of how current EBS license areas are structured is necessary to evaluate the available whitespace areas.
Existing EBS licenses are organized into what are referred to as geographic service areas — or GSAs. According to the FCC’s licensing description for BRS and EBS spectrum, “the GSA of a P35 license (which can be either BRS or EBS) generally consists of the station’s 35-mile radius around the protected service area coordinates. In those instances where two co-channel stations have overlapping protected GSAs, the GSA of each license may be reduced due to the ‘splitting the football’ approach used to divide the overlap area between the licensees.” The FCC’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) database does not reflect changes made to the GSAs based on overlapping service areas.
In developing our EBS Whitespace Auction Opportunities Tool, we have generated geographic license areas for every existing license across all EBS and BRS channels. While there are other companies that may make available their interpretation of each licensee’s GSA, our license areas take into account many of the nuanced licensing details that are easy to overlook. Our licensing expertise ties back to our president’s time spent at Clearwire as their Director of Spectrum Operations, where he developed a profound understanding of EBS/BRS licensing. This experience has contributed to what we believe is the most accurate representation for all of the EBS/BRS license areas. No one has attempted to analyze each county’s whitespace based upon these license areas, making the resulting data, available in our EBS Whitespace Auction Opportunities Tool, a crucial part of your Whitespace Auction strategy which is not available from any other source.
Our license areas account for:
For the EBS Whitespace Auction, the FCC created individual auction channels from the EBS channels illustrated previously. The original sub-channels have been allocated to form the three distinct auction channels.
Each of the auction channels is a different size in terms of bandwidth. Below are the sizes of each auction channel, measured in MHz:
The EBS Whitespace Auction Opportunities Tool is an Excel-based product which provides insights into the available 2.5GHz unlicensed spectrum for each of the three EBS auction channels. This tool will allow all interested parties — including wireless carriers, telephone companies, internet service providers, and investors — to determine the amount of available spectrum that can be licensed in a county.
The Auction Opportunities Tool is designed to show the number of people that can be served within the whitespace in each auction channel at a county level.
The composite view of all US counties provides insights into the areas where spectrum is available and a larger picture of the overall size of the EBS Whitespace Auction. The primary tools available within the Auction Opportunities Tool are:
When looking at the geographic whitespace in a county, there is the potential for each sub-channel’s unlicensed areas to look different. In the EBS Auction Opportunities Tool, we have summarized the amount of people that fall into the whitespace areas for each county. The total MHz-POPs available in each auction channel has been calculated accordingly.
MHz-POPs is a measurement of how much spectrum is available across a market area, typically defined by its population. For EBS spectrum, MHz-POPs are calculated by taking the population available in each sub-channel times the MHz bandwidth of that channel. Since cell phone service is a revenue opportunity tied back to individual consumers, MHz-POPs is a measurement that allows auction participants to forecast the total opportunity within an area of whitespace in a county, therefore determining the general value of the spectrum area.
For example, for two counties in West Virginia, the whitespace area matches the county boundary for the entirety of EBS Auction Channel 1 (figures 7 & 8). This is clearly demonstrated using Population Percentage View (figure 9), which shows that 100% of the total county population falls in the whitespace area for each of the sub-channels that make up EBS Auction Channel 1. To make this more apparent, we employ a “heat chart” format where channels with lower available population% are indicated in red, while high available population% are green. Accordingly, Kanawha and Putnam counties are both highlighted in green across Auction Channel 1. The implication of this data is that the available whitespace population in these counties is equal to the county population and the winning bidder will have access to the entire EBS Auction Channel 1 (49.5 MHz) over the entire county population.
The exact number of people that channel 1 would be able to reach, if licensed, can be evaluated using Population View, which shows the actual whitespace population for each county, along with the total MHz-POPs available for EBS Auction Channel 1 (figure 10). In Kanawha County, the total population is 193,063 x 49.5MHz (channel 1 width), resulting in 9,556,619 MHz-POPs.
In some counties, the unlicensed area will be different for several of the sub-channels. In Douglas County, Nevada, the amount of available whitespace for Auction Channel 1 ranges from 4% (red) to 93% (green) of the total county population. Accordingly, the winning bidder for Auction Channel 1 in Douglas County could use the 5.5MHz B2 channel to reach 93% of the county population with a wireless signal.
In Population View, the raw population counts in each sub-channel’s whitespace area are shown, along with the total MHz-POPs for the entire auction channel. Looking at the B2 sub-channel in Douglas County, one is able to determine that over 43,000 people could be served with a 5.5MHz wireless signal on this sub-channel.
To accurately represent whitespace areas geographically at a county-by-county level, we have added an EBS Auction section to our Web Spectrum Viewer tool. In this section, you will see a similar population view and population percentage view as the Excel tool. In the web view, the user has the ability to select individual sub-channels by clicking the corresponding cells. This will reveal the whitespace area for that specific sub-channel represented visually. Here, a user can gain important insight to more accurately evaluate the available whitespace in that county. Cities, roads, and other landmarks are clearly identified on our Whitespace Area Mapping tool, making it easy to determine whether or not they fall within the available unlicensed areas.
In addition to geographic mapping through our Web Spectrum Viewer, we are also providing MapInfo TAB files and Google Earth KMZ files as part of each one-time subscription. This would allow the user to utilize these mapping layers in conjunction with their internal infrastructure data.
Before the EBS Whitespace Auction goes live, first priority for this spectrum has gone to Native American Tribes to access the whitespace spectrum overlapping with their tribal lands. Each tribe is required to submit an official FCC application to acquire this spectrum, and new Tribal Land licenses are being granted periodically. The information regarding individual Tribal Land licenses will be included in our Whitespace Auction Opportunities Tool. However, as this process is still ongoing, these newly licensed tribal areas are not yet removed from the overall whitespace area on our tool. Once all tribal licenses are finalized by the FCC, our geographic files and our Whitespace Population tools will be updated and made available to all Whitespace Tool users.
We will provide the tribal lands overlay (see below) as new applications are finalized by the FCC, so the effect of the tribal licenses can be predicted as things progress.
The EBS Whitespace Opportunities Tool is available for purchase in two different versions: a national version with all fifty states and US territories, or a specific state-by-state version. In the state-by-state version, you will have the ability to specify as many states as you would like. On our website, simply select the State version of this product, then specify the number of states you’d like to purchase in the quantity field provided. On your way to check out, you will be given the option to “add special instructions.” In the corresponding text box, indicate exactly which states you want included in your one-time subscription.
The EBS Whitespace Opportunities Tool is delivered by download from a cloud service. A link for this download will be provided after your payment is confirmed. Typically you will have access to the data within the same business day of your payment being processed.
All purchases are corporate subscriptions, which allow any employee within the same email domain to utilize the data and request access to the Web Spectrum Viewer.
To schedule a video demonstration, email info@allnetinsights.com or call (425) 522-2142.
Purchases can be made through our website or by emailing us at info@allnetinsights.com.
With Auction 107 officially starting a week from tomorrow, we developed a two helpful graphics to indicate when the C-Band channels will be available in each of the Top 100 Partial Economic Area (PEA) markets. The A channels indicated in green will be available by December 5, 2021 with all of the yellow channels available by December 5, 2023. The Honolulu HI PEA will not have C-band spectrum available as the spectrum is reserved to meet the continued satellite video demand.
Today, the FCC ruled that Dish should not have received small company discounts for their bidding partners in the AWS-3 auction, meaning that Dish would need to pay full price for the spectrum licenses won by Northstar and SNR or they would need to return the spectrum to the FCC for a re-auction.
Below is a map that reflects the AWS-3 spectrum that would be available at auction if Dish declines to pay the full auction price.
The next questions will focus on who could benefit most from this spectrum. In the image below from our Spectrum Ownership Grid, the AWS-3 ownership for the Top 3 US markets are shown. The columns filled with "FCC" indicate the spectrum that would be re-auctioned, so there would be a 5x5 channel in the New York EA (Economic Area Market) and a 10x10 channel in the Chicago market between the Chicago CMA (G channel) and the Chicago EA (H channel). It is work noting that AT&T already has a strong position in these markets, but Verizon lacks AWS-3 spectrum in each of these markets, although no AWS-3 spectrum is available in the Los Angeles market.
