CTIA – The Wireless Association (CTIA), has filed a petition for rulemaking with the FCC, urging the agency to amend rules pertaining to the relatively new Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) established in the 3550-3700 MHz (3.5 GHz Band). Specifically, CTIA is seeking three major changes to the Commission’s Part 96 rules applicable to 3.5 GHz Band/CBRS operations: (1) change the term of the Priority Access License (PAL) from the current three year term to a more typical ten year term that is used by the FCC for other commercial wireless FCC licenses; (2) modify the geographic PAL license areas to consist of Partial Economic Areas instead of Census Tracts; and (3) modify the requirements for Spectrum Access System Administrators’ treatment of CBRS Device registration information in order to reduce security risks to user identity information and to protect sensitive deployment information from disclosure to competitors. The 3.5 GHz Band is the only spectrum band in the United States designed exclusively for 5G operations, and how the FCC regulates this band is likely to influence how other countries around the world adopt and regulate similar CBRS services using 5G technology.
