Promoting Investment in the 3550-3700 MHz Band

In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopts limited changes to the rules governing Priority Access Licenses (PALs) that will be issued in the 3500-3700 MHz Band (3.5 GHz band)--including larger license areas, longer license terms, renewability, and performance requirements--as well as changes to the competitive bidding rules for the issuance of PALs and to the ability to partition and disaggregate areas within PALs. These changes are consistent with the rules that helped foster the development of 4G and LTE services in the United States, and adopting similar rules in this band will help promote additional investment in the next generation of wireless services. The Commission also adopts changes to the technical rules to facilitate transmissions over wider bandwidth channels without significant power reduction and changes to the information security requirements to better safeguard commercially sensitive information and protect critical infrastructure. These targeted changes will spur additional investment and broader deployment in the band, promote robust and efficient spectrum use, and help ensure the rapid deployment of advanced wireless technologies--including 5G--in the United States.