The FCC has granted the spectrum licenses to T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular Corp., Straight Path, ATI Sub LLC, FiberTower Spectrum Holdings, Window Wireless and Windstream. 

Straight Path Spectrum was the top bidder in Auction 103 ($3,417,133,445), followed by FiberTower Spectrum Holdings ($2,379,103,897), and T-Mobile ($931,609,379). 

The FCC's Spectrum Frontiers auction of high-band spectrum for 5G (auction 103) closed March 12, raising $7,558,703,201, with $3,084,172,898 going to pay off existing licensees and the FCC netting $4,474,530,303. 

The 35 qualified bidders in the auction competed for a whopping 3,400 MHz of flexible use, millimeter-wave, spectrum (in the upper 37-gigahertz, 39-GHz and 47-GHz bands), the most spectrum the FCC has ever offered in an auction of any type. The spectrum — which was offered as 14,142 licenses — can be used for both fixed and mobile broadband and was auctioned in 100-megahertz blocks in partial economic areas (PEAs).  

Now that it sees a potential compromise with wireless carriers on license sizes, Charter Communications is pushing for licensing rules in the 3.5-GHz (CBRS) band that would combine county and MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area)-sized licenses.

According to a filing last week by CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association, the organizations have agreed that the FCC should issue MSA licenses in the top 306 cellular markets, but smaller, county-based licenses for the remaining 428.

Related: CBRS Alliance Specs Target Interoperability

CTIA and CCA argue the approach would be better than one based on census tracts.

Charter said it is pleased with the progress from wireless proposals to base the licenses on partial economic areas (PEAs), but that it would prefer the FCC divide the top 10 MSA markets into counties to expand competitive bidding in urban areas.

The FCC voted last October on a framework for freeing up new spectrum -- it would be shared with incumbent government users -- for wireless broadband that could encourage cable and telco broadband players to use, and bid on, that spectrum in the race to 5G.

Cable broadband providers are looking for more WiFi spectrum, as well as looking to add mobile wireless service to their bundles via MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) agreements, under which they lease capacity from an AT&T or Verizon.

The changes to the priority access license (PALs) in the band are meant to incentivize faster network broadband deployments of fixed and mobile service. Those include longer license terms and contemplating different sized licenses.

Charter -- along with NCTA-The Internet & Television Association -- has been pushing for smaller sized licenses for more flexibility, so that isn't new. What is is the progress Charter cites in striking a compromise with wireless operators. 

But it does not want them too small either, either. Charter's suggestion for license areas was bigger than census tracts, but no bigger than counties.

Related: CBRS Spectrum to Open Window of Opportunity for Cable Ops

Charter said small-cell tech is ill suited to large-scale geographic area licenses and would discourage its participation in an auction of the spectrum. Charter has said that, under the right rules, it could be interested in acquiring licenses in the 3.5-GHz band, but less likely so if the FCC stuck with PEA-sized licenses, in this case PEA meaning larger.

Charter is launching mobile wireless service to its customers as a WiFi-first offering in conjunction with Verizon Wireless.

But while cable ops had wanted the FCC to increase the geographic areas to larger than census tracts, but less that partial economic areas (PEAs), the October item simply asked for input on that

Back in 2016, FCC chair Tom Wheeler signaled the FCC would be opening up a "trifecta" of low-band (the broadcast spectrum auction), mid-band (3.5-GHz) and high-band spectrum for shared and licensed and unlicensed use to boost 5G wireless broadband.

The FCC voted back in April 2015 to make shared 3.5-GHZ spectrum available for flexible wireless broadband use. 

Straight Path Communications has agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle an investigation into its failure to deploy wireless service as required by its spectrum license, and it will sell or surrender all of its 5G licenses, according to the FCC.

The company will surrender 196 of its 1,000 39-GHz licenses, sell the rest, and give the FCC 20% of the proceeds from that sale.

Squatting on spectrum licenses without any meaningful effort to put them to good use in a timely manner is fundamentally inconsistent with the public good,” said Travis LeBlanc, chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau," in announcing the settlement.  “Wireless spectrum is a scarce public resource. We expect every person or company that receives a spectrum license to put it to productive use.”

Straight Path will have to pay $15 million up front, but won't have to pay the other $85 million if it either sells the balance of the licenses within 12 months or surrenders them. The 20% of the sale price is an additional penalty.

Straight Path called it a "comprehensive settlement" that has "cleared the way for a review of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value," said CEO Davidi Jonas, which means selling the licenses. It has retained Evercore to advise it on the sale.

“We are pleased that we were able to achieve a comprehensive settlement with the FCC, which allows us to move forward as the largest holder of 39-GHz spectrum, with about 95 percent of the total licenses commercially available at this time, as well as a significant holder of 28-GHz in major markets, including New York and San Francisco," Jonas said.