On March 15, 2019, the Commission adopted the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) proposing revisions to the FCC’s partitioning and disaggregation rules in the March Open Meeting (WT Docket No. 19-38). The NPRM proposes service-by-service rules to provide covered geographic licensees flexibility to determine the amount of spectrum and areas they will serve, and meets the congressional directive under the MOBILE NOW Act to initiate a rulemaking on partitioning and disaggregation to increase availability of advanced telecommunications services.
There were no significant changes made from the draft version released and the adopted version. The adopted version did add language, however, regarding conditions on transfers of spectrum to covered small carriers, seeking comment on whether the FCC should consider applying these rule revisions to an expanded class of licensees beyond those directed under the MOBILE NOW Act (¶ 20).
Comments are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
Reply comments are due 90 days after publication in the Federal Register.
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