Utilities continue to face spectrum challenges, UTC panelists say

Kevin Cookler, an attorney for law firm of Lerman Senter, cited several regulatory and environmental regulations that can delay federal approvals for network deployments, although the process is much more streamlined when existing tower sites can be leveraged. State and local regulations often result in additional complexity, he said.

In some cases, meeting FCC buildout requirements for licensed spectrum can be difficult for utilities, because the buildout requirements are based on the number of potential people served by a network, Sheldon said. The problem with this is that utilities typically do not need to blanket a geographic region with network coverage; instead a utility network’s coverage tends to be focused on locations where substations and transmissions lines exist—and these are areas that often have little or no population, he said.

“We say [to the FCC], ‘We don’t buy spectrum to cover people; we buy the spectrum to serve things—substations, switches, lines—that don’t have people … in rural areas,’” Sheldon said. “[FCC staff members ask,] ‘But how many people are you covering?’ It’s like knocking your head against a wall, because they hear it, they understand it, but the rules say you have to cover a certain percentage of the population.

“[Utilities say,] ‘I’m providing substantial service, because by my covering all of these devices, I’m actually keeping the power on to many more people than are even within the coverage range of the system.’ [And FCC staff responds,] ‘Wow, that sounds really good. But how many people do you cover?’ It’s the mindset. The rules were written for carriers. I think, at some point, the FCC needs to understand that radio systems are designed to serve more than just people.”

Spectrum sharing is another option. The federal government is pursuing strategies to enable spectrum sharing with military and other government organizations, but the exact rules and timelines are not clear.

Three other broadband alternatives are in development, but all include uncertainties.

FirstNet is tasked with building a nationwide broadband network for public safety on 20 MHz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band, and several FirstNet officials have expressed interest in having utilities utilize the network for operational and economic reasons.

Utility representatives have indicated that they are intrigued by the notion, but they want assurances that their most critical applications would be guaranteed priority access on the FirstNet system. FirstNet has an ongoing proceeding to examine whether utilities and other critical-infrastructure entities should be able to qualify for priority access to the FirstNet system and under what circumstances.

Without a guarantee of some level of priority, it would be difficult for a utility to get regulatory approval to invest in a shared system, according to Marcus Lockard, CEO of Lockard & White consulting firm.

“It was an exciting conference about 700 MHz two years ago, and one of the PUC commissioners stood up and said, ‘Excuse me, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to agree to let a utility invest millions of dollars and put it in the rate base for a network that they don’t control or have access to in certain times,’” Lockard said.

In addition, utilities have worked with the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) to propose rules that would give utilities access to the “lightly licensed” 4.9 GHz spectrum currently dedicated to public safety. UTC officials hope that the FCC will make a rulemaking regarding the 4.9 GHz spectrum by the end of the year, according to Brett Kilbourne, UTC’s vice president of government and industry affairs.