CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Meredith Attwell Baker, who announced her retirement last December and has served in the role since 2014. Baker is also a former FCC commissioner.

Pai will join CTIA from Searchlight Capital Partners, a global private investment firm. "I am honored to lead CTIA. The wireless industry is a key driver of technology innovation and investment in the U.S. And it helps advance America's global competitiveness, national security, and economic security," Pai said. "Together, we will work to ensure that our nation's spectrum and infrastructure policies promote U.S. global wireless leadership and keep consumers on the leading edge of innovation. I am thrilled to get to represent the companies across our country that are creating jobs, growing the economy, and benefiting hundreds of millions of consumers every day."

"Ajit has played a pivotal role in leading our nation's effort to promote broadband deployment and expand commercial access to spectrum. He is the proven leader we need to head our industry at this critical stage," said Laurent Therivel, CEO of UScellular and CTIA Chairman of the Board. "CTIA is excited to welcome Ajit to help usher in an exciting new era for the wireless industry."

Pai was appointed FCC commissioner by President Obama in 2012 and was chairman during the first Trump administration, 2017-2021. Earlier in his career, Pai served in key positions at the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Senate, and as a partner in the law firm of Jenner & Block. Pai graduated with honors from Harvard University and from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review.

WASHINGTON—The FCC’s authority to regulate spectrum auctions expired on Friday after a Senate vote to renew its authority failed to pass on Thursday. 

The FCC has had responsibility over the management of spectrum auctions for more than 30 years and in 2017, in particular raised nearly $20 billion in selling off portions of the broadcast spectrum. The House approved reauthorization in February but the Senate failed to pass the resolution amid disagreement on military spectrum needs.

House Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), one of two sponsors of the legislation tore into senators on Friday. “For reasons unknown to me, certain senators decided to risk U.S. wireless leadership over a date change,” she said during a hearing. “A date change. That is unacceptable.”

Sen. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), the co-sponsor with McMorris Rodgers, was equally critical. 

“Yesterday, for the first time since the agency gained this authority 30 years ago, Congress failed to extend it when the Senate refused to act,” he said. “The House did its work — we unanimously passed a bipartisan bill introduced by me and Chair Rodgers last month to extend the spectrum auction authority to May 19th. Our legislation would have prevented this lapse in authority. I am disappointed that the Senate did not pass the House’s bipartisan bill, but we cannot give up and our work continues.”

In a statement issued on Friday, FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel urged that action be taken to restore authorization.

“For three decades, the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to auction the nation’s airwaves has been an indispensable tool for harnessing the promise of new wireless technologies while also spurring economic growth, creating jobs, and strengthening our national security and global leadership,” she said. “Time and time again our auctions have proven to be an enormous engine for market innovation and the flourishing internet ecosystem, and for expanding the reach of next-generation connectivity to everyone, everywhere. To date, the FCC has held 100 auctions and has raised more than $233 billion in revenues and unlocked extraordinary benefits for the American people. 

“It is my hope that the FCC’s auction authority is restored quickly so that this important program is once again able to produce results for consumers and the economy.”

The CTIA warned that the lack of authorization could have a negative impact on the nation’s technological competitiveness.

“Congress has never allowed the FCC’s spectrum auction authority to lapse until now. Since 1994 spectrum auctions have raised over $233B for the U.S. Treasury and the wireless industry has invested more than $265B to put that spectrum to work, generating $825B in GDP annually, and supporting 4.5M U.S. jobs,” Meredith Attwell Baker, president and CEO of the trade group CTIA said. “Without this authority and a pipeline of spectrum to meet accelerating demand for wireless broadband, the U.S. risks falling behind China and other nations to lead globally in new 5G innovations and the industries of the future. We call on Congress to act quickly to restore the FCC’s authority, and schedule the necessary future spectrum auctions so that we can secure our 5G leadership and our nation’s economic and national security.”

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The widely touted benefits of 5G wireless networks to offer consumers new entertainment experiences and streamline the way companies produce content could also help the U.S. combat climate change, according to a new study by Accenture that was commissioned by the CTIA. 

The wireless industry association funded study is forecasting that 5G connectivity will play a significant role in enabling the U.S. to meet the Biden Administration’s climate change goals, with 5G-enabled use cases projected to make up to a 20% contribution toward the country’s carbon emission reduction targets by 2025. 

The report, titled "5G Connectivity: A Key Enabling Technology to Meet America’s Climate Change Goals," finds that use cases on 5G networks will enable up to 330.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMtCO2e) of additional abatement by 2025. That is the equivalent of removing 26% of all the passenger vehicles from the road in the U.S. for a year—roughly 72 million vehicles.

“This study confirms that U.S. 5G wireless networks will be instrumental in tackling the pressing challenge of climate change,” said Meredith Attwell Baker, CTIA President and CEO. “America’s wireless industry is building a world-leading 5G platform that will spur the investment and innovation necessary to meet our country’s climate objectives.”

The report examined 31 use cases for 5G across five industry verticals: transportation and cities, manufacturing, buildings and energy, agriculture, and working, living and health. 

“This study shows 5G networks can bring material reductions in our country’s carbon footprint,” said Peters Suh, Accenture’s North America Communications and Media industry lead. “The crucial piece will be how industries leverage cloud-first 5G networks to bring greater innovation into key operational processes. With appropriate education and ecosystem changes, organizations can reap the climate benefits of 5G across their cloud continuum, which includes everything from the public cloud to the edge.”

“U.S. 5G networks already cover 305 million people, we’re building out 5G faster than we built out 4G, and every day, the wireless industry is working to make these networks go faster and farther,” added Attwell Baker. “Taken together, America’s wireless ecosystem is positioning U.S. innovators across these key industry verticals to quickly unlock these climate benefits.”

The report does not specifically examine the entertainment industry but technologists are already viewing 5G as a promising way to reduce the carbon footprint of producing live sports and other content, as previously reported here and here in TV Tech. A IBC report on the subject can be found here.  

The full CTIA report is available here. 

As the rollout of 5G picks up steam worldwide, U.S. wireless providers are taking the necessary steps to optimize efficiency in their commercial spectrum assets to handle the anticipated massive “hockey-stick” type increase in data traffic, according to a new report from the CTIA.

Wireless data traffic has jumped from 388 million GBs use in 2010 to 28.58 TBs in 2018, an increase of 73x, the CTIA says in its in its report, “Smarter and More Efficient: How America’s Wireless Industry Maximizes its Spectrum.” At the same time, on a Mbps/MHz basis, U.S. wireless providers have increased their spectrum efficiency by a factor of 42 since 2010 and are now handling 39.9 billion megabytes (MB) for every one Megahertz (MHz) today vs. 948 million MB for every one MHz of spectrum in 2010.

In the past five years alone, the number of wireless subscribers in the U.S. has jumped 25% and the average smartphone owner uses more than 6.5 GBs per month, up from 1.1 GBs five years ago. With President Trump’s recently stated goal to “have more 5G spectrum than any other country in the world by 2020,” wireless providers are optimizing their use of spectrum by two ways: actively refarming existing spectrum holdings and quickly putting new spectrum to use.

“Wireless providers refarm to serve more subscribers with limited spectrum assets,” the CTIA said in its report. “In other words, refarming enables wireless to do more with less.”

CTIA says that 5G will increase spectral efficiency by more than 30% over current 4G/LTE-advanced networks. 

The tower industry is applauding language in a measure that passed the House late last week that clarifies a tower marking issue that emerged over a year ago.

The passage of H.R. 4, the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, in the U.S. House of Representatives included language offered by Representative David Rouzer (R-NC) that provided an important clarification to the 2016 FAA reauthorization related to the marking of certain telecommunications towers.

Specifically, the language clarifies that covered towers “shall be marked or entered into a de-identified database.” In a nutshell, the language clarifies that certain towers between 50 and 200 feet tall will not have to be marked if they are registered in an FAA location database.

[Watch: Working On A 1500-Foot TV Tower]

That amends the FAA’s Extension, Safety and Security Act of 2016, which if implemented could have forced expensive retrofits to potentially 50,000 existing towers, according to a release from the FCC. Other observers said it also would raise tower prices for the next generation of wireless services, but with little gain to air safety.

An industry-wide coalition of partner organizations, including the National Association of Broadcasters, lobbied for the revision, which will take effect not later than one year after the date of enactment of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018.

“Absent changes made by this language in H.R. 4, our industry would have faced a tower marking mandate at a time when we are already experiencing a workforce shortage. This scenario would have had a significant economic impact on our industry and would have strained an already busy workforce with additional tower climbs required to mark towers,” said Todd Schlekeway, executive director of National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE).

Schlekeway said towers that are most dangerous – those that are temporary and difficult for pilots to see, such as Meteorological Evaluation Towers – would still require both marking and registration in the location database.

In addition to NATE and NAB, the Wireless Infrastructure Association, Competitive Carriers Association and CTIA were all on board with the wording change to the FAA’s tower rules.

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (H.R. 4) now goes to the Senate.

WASHINGTON—Broadcasters are currently petitioning the FCC to allow them to roll out the ATSC 3.0 transmission standard during the spectrum repack. Part of that is to allow broadcasters that need to install new equipment have it be ATSC 3.0 compliant. However, wireless carriers do not want to pay extra for ATSC 3.0 equipment. CTIA recently issued comments on the matter to the FCC.

Read the full story on TV Tech’s sister publication B&C.