Sub-6 GHz Spectrum Screen including 3.45GHz allocation April 8, 2021 09:38

Last year we provided an FCC Spectrum Screen Analysis reflecting the effects of the EBS reconfiguration, the CBRS allocation, and the C-band allocation.  Two weeks ago the FCC has revised the Sub-6 GHz spectrum screen through their 3.45GHz rulemaking. 

In the chart below we reflect the spectrum depth allotments that are included in our Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool.  The links under in the frequency column will open the FCC spectrum screen documents and the comment field indicates the paragraphs where the spectrum screen is discussed.

The Allnet Spectrum Depth column indicates the spectrum allocations that we use in all of our typical spectrum depth reporting (county, CMA, PEA, State, and National).  The FCC / Allnet Spectrum Screen allocations reflect the allocations that we use in our County, CMA market, and PEA Market Spectrum Screen columns.

Band Frequency Allnet Spectrum Depth FCC / Allnet Spectrum Screen Comments
Low Band 600 MHz 70 70
Low Band 700 MHz 90 70 First Net Spectrum not included
Low Band Cellular 50 50
Low Band SMR 14 14
Lw Mid Band PCS 140 140 Includes H-block
Lw Mid Band AWS-1 90 90
Lw Mid Band AWS-3 65 65
Lw Mid Band AWS-4 40 40
Up Mid Band WCS 30 20
Up Mid Band BRS 77.5 67.5 BRS1 and BRS K guard bands not included
Up Mid Band EBS 116.5 116.5 Paragraph 98-100
Up Mid Band 3.45GHz 100 100 Paragraph 101
Up Mid Band CBRS 0 0 Paragraph 107
Up Mid Band C-Band 280 280 Paragraph 83
Total MHz 1163 1123

 

To determine the overall Spectrum Screen value, the FCC divides the spectrum screen allotment (1123) by 3 and rounds to the nearest 10MHz.  This makes the new spectrum screen including the 100MHz of 3.45GHz spectrum, 370 MHz.

In the Mobile Carrier - Spectrum Ownership Analysis Tool we have three views into the Spectrum Screen.  They are a County Analysis View, a Cellular Market Area (CMA) View, and a Partial Economic Area (PEA) View.

County Analysis View:

In this view, each of the national carriers spectrum screen values are displayed along with the amount of spectrum in that county controlled by the FCC.  The FCC value predominately represents the 3.45GHz spectrum allocation, but there is some EBS spectrum (whitespace) that is also allocated to the FCC.

PEA Market Analysis View: