Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — AST Telecom has urged federal regulators “to make the 3.45 – 3.55 GHz” broadband available to the US territories “as soon as possible.” The telecom company doing business as Bluesky in American Samoa and DOCOMO Pacific, Inc. — wireless service provider of mobile broadband services in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is urging the upgrade.

The call by the telecom companies — jointly referred to as U.S. Territories Service Providers — was outlined in a five-page Nov. 20, 2020 comment letter to the US Federal Communications Commission, which was seeking public comments on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to make mid-band spectrum available to wireless service providers.

Samoa News only learned of the Bluesky and DOCOMO’s letter following an inquiry from a US based entity seeking information on the availability of broadband width in the territory and referred to the Bluesky joint letter with DOCOMO.

Submitted by their US based attorneys, the two telecom providers “urge the Commission to make the 3.45 – 3.55 GHz band available in the U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam and CNMI. These areas of the country have a substantial and ever-increasing demand for wireless broadband service, and thus, the same urgent need for mid-band spectrum exists in the territories, as in the contiguous United States.”

“To date, however, the 3.7 GHz band is wholly unavailable, and the 3.5 GHz  band is largely unavailable, in the territories. As a result, it is particularly important for the Commission to make the 3.45 – 3.55 GHz band available as soon as possible, as a first step in making essential mid-band spectrum available in the territories,” according to the joint letter.

It also says that the US Territories Service Providers “cannot support” the FCC’s proposal that “the U.S. territories should be excluded from 3.45 – 3.55 GHz licensing at this time.”

And if it is not feasible and available at this time, US Territories Service Providers urge the FCC to delegate authority to its Wireless Telecommunication Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology to make the 3.45 – 3.55 GHz band available to the territories pending further study by the federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the US Defense Department.

The FCC was also urged “to not only work with U.S. government agencies, but to actively encourage such agencies to move forward expeditiously to conduct any further analysis that may be required, and to implement appropriate coordination measures to make the 3.45 – 3.55 GHz band available in the territories as soon as possible.”

The US based entity which contacted Samoa News last week and asked not be identified as it was “exploring” the local wireless market at this time, claimed that American Samoa customers “could be well benefited” through 3.45 – 3.55 GHz, as businesses and people depend more and more on their wireless devices on a daily basis.