Thread by @sarahecon

Next panel! C-Band: Endgame? Blair Levin moderates this panel on satellite spectrum with speakers Claude Aiken, Ross Lieberman, Greg Rosston, Peter Pitsch! #TPIAspen

C-band! #cband #satellite #earthstations #mobile #intelsat #TPIAspen

Blair Levin: FCC will need to decide, how much spectrum needs to be reallocated, how to structure that for sale, cap if any, how should sales process should be run, how to distribute proceeds, how soon spectrum available, right interference limits, admin transition #TPIAspen

Blair Levin: Chairman Pai has described this as a rubic's cube and the most difficult decision ever reached, but every Chairman has a most difficult decision, but this is a difficult one. What is the most important thing the FCC should do? #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: Welcome to Endgame. The single most important thing the government can do for 5G in the US, IMO. How does the FCC decide to treat this spectrum? Difficult questions. #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: 4 satellite companies who help distribute this programming has nonexclusive right to use entire 500 MHz over the entire continental U.S. Potential for a holdout problem. #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: Situation cries out for a market-driven process, bottom up, decentralized, best harnesses incentives, which is what the C-Band Alliance proposal does, strong incentives to clear spectrum where it's efficient #TPIAspen

Ross Lieberman: Represents small cable operators dependent on C-Band for content delivery and broadband providers. FCC should adopt the ACA, Charter plan from July 2 as a counter proposal to what the CBA has provided #TPIAspen

Ross Lieberman: The 5G Plan we propose will make available spectrum nationwide to allow carriers to provide access, includes transparency in the auction, provides new fiber route miles for rural American, does it in a time frame that can beat the CBA's plan #TPIAspen

Ross Lieberman: The 5G Plan provides revenue for U.S. Treasury, interference protections. What we propose is to migrate the MVPD industry which uses more than 50% of the band today to fiber #TPIAspen

Greg Rosston: Social goal here is to have spectrum used in its most productive service and how do we get there, and what is there? Flexible-licenses subject to use constraints and may have positive and negative effects. 500 MHz of flexible spectrum is key to 5G! #TPIAspen

Greg Rosston: 500 MHz is currently used by satellites but content delivery does not have to come from satellites to earth stations. Concerns that terrestrial use may interfere with earth stations, but if an area has no earth stations, then there's no problem #TPIAspen

Greg Rosston: Details on how to get people to bid and provide incentives. T-Mobile proposal has incentive plan and all 500 MHz in an open and competitive process #TPIAspen

Claude Aiken: First to the game on C-Band, Broadband Access Coalition's petition for rulemaking in 2017 kicked off this process, that the spectrum is being underutilized. Small transponders getting full protections but not using rest of spectrum, better uses possible #TPIAspen

Claude Aiken: The race to 5G has taken a craze of its own, and large mobile carriers have need for mid-band spectrum. We propose robust interference protections backed up by a study that shows all you need is 10 km geographic separation... #TPIAspen

Claude Aiken: ..from an earth station for fixed to multipoint radios to effectively use the spectrum without causing harm to earth stations #TPIAspen

Blair Levin: What's the mistake for the FCC to avoid in this proceeding? #TPIAspen

Claude Aiken: We have different views on public/private sale, bidding credits, spectrum navigation credits. But huge implications for rural broadband #TPIAspen

Greg Rosston: The FCC should avoid the mistake of not getting the 500 MHz. CBA first started by saying they could only reallocate 100 MHz, and now they say they can reallocate more. The difference is the price that they can get #TPIAspen

Greg Rosston: CBA proposal says 36 months for 180 MHz, that means 360 MHz is never which is a lot longer. Fibering the high-value areas is mostly done #TPIAspen

Ross Lieberman: The FCC should make sure that incumbents are made whole. The FCC should not let the proceeds go to foreign companies to pocket the proceeds. We shouldn't use a novel process, we need precedent and fair process. We shouldn't give up on 200 MHz or more #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: The FCC shouldn't do, is needlessly make a lot of top-down mother-may-I, difficult technical economic questions when they don't need to. CBA proposal, better than other entities, internalizes all relevant costs and benefits in one entity. #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: CBA includes in its proposal how to make incumbents whole. Let's look at what the other proposals say. Other proposals have called it a not-ready for prime-time proposal, but their fiber plans have not included the costs on incumbents including antennas #TPIAspen

Blair Levin: Ross, you said no harm to existing users, Peter just said that there will be harm to existing users in your proposal. Would you like to respond? #TPIAspen

Ross Lieberman: MVPDs are now comfortable with what we're suggesting and we're expecting that MVPD programmers will soon be comfortable too. Fiber is commonly used medium for transporting video today. MVPD programmers use fiber to deliver from studios to uplink centers #TPIAspen

Ross Lieberman: Primary way of delivering content across the country is fiber. They are wired. Wall Street relies on fiber. Idea that fiber is somehow problematic, can't be used, just doesn't stand up. Programmer concerns were from lack of detail #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: Disney, Viacom, Discovery have given this considered attention. Maybe you know their interests better than I do. I'm skeptical. #TPIAspen

Blair Levin: FCC is skeptical of set-asides and designated entities. Thoughts on these set-asides? #TPIAspen

Claude Aiken: Pleased that in CBRS context, FCC said they would make available for small, rural entities for auction. More important issue here for rural perspective is what are opportunity costs on rural consumers for not allowing quick use of spectrum by providers #TPIAspen

Blair Levin: Peter started his talk saying we need the CBA proposal to avoid the holdout problem. Greg, does your response solve the holdout problem? #TPIAspen

Greg Rosston: Peter says that 1 entity can lower transaction costs to work out repacking, which solves the holdout problem. But I see 1 entity as a monopoly that can restrict quantity. That's why they do not offer the whole 300 MHz. #TPIAspen

Greg Rosston: In our proposal, the holdout problem of the last few holdouts can be dealt with in a process that we're familiar with, to get the full 300 MHz #TPIAspen

Blair Levin: Could you elaborate more on the contribution to the U.S. Treasury, Peter? #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: The concern about unjust enrichment can be considered on the unjust and enrichment parts. When have firms offered to make incumbents whole? Our companies voluntarily will contribute revenues to the U.S. Treasury #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: My dear friend Greg did not really solve the holdout problem. Imagine a company struck a deal with all the remaining 20% OTA households that will now move to cable and get to use the spectrum. That was not what happened #TPIAspen

Question: The uplink C-Band, 6 GHz range, can you repack that for downlink, and then clear the whole band? #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: The spectrum characteristics make that band valuable to send content to cable headends. We're interested in letting the free market work out the reallocation of that band #TPIAspen

Question: Could you talk about how the different plans differ on timing of release of spectrum? #TPIAspen

Claude Aiken: Very fast. Greg Rosston: Would take longer to go through the FCC, but the question is the clearing not the auction. CBA says 3 years to clear the spectrum. With fiber, it's also 3 years. Ross's plan should be starting point, start with 380, then get to 500 #TPIAspen

Ross Lieberman: Under our plan, clear the MVPDs of their use of the C-band in major urban markets in 18 months, urban markets where all the fiber you need is already in existence, NY, LA. The largest MVPDs are serving these markets. No deployments needed for them #TPIAspen

Peter Pitsch: Timing is the key advantage for our proposal, we have one entity that is internalizing the cost of delay. None of the others are internalizing the cost of delay. In 18, 36 months, 180 MHz will be cleared, by 2020, 2-3 years ahead of other proposals #TPIAspen

Blair Levin: The most important thing for the country for 5G, and from our perspectives, some decisions get a lot of publicity, but this is one that in 2030 and we'll look back and some criticism for what the FCC did, but hopefully FCC will do the right thing #TPIAspen