Portative Technologies, LLC 1995 Allison Lane, Suite 100 Corydon, IN 47112 Tel. 812-738-7007 www.portative.com VIA ECFS Marlene H. Dortch, Secretary Federal Communications Commission RE: GN Docket No. 17-258 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 Dear Ms. Dortch: My company, Portative Technologies, established in 2002, provides Fixed Wireless broadband services in Indiana to more than 500 customers. Although only 20 minutes from the metropolitan area of Louisville, Kentucky, we are a rural community with a little more than 22,000 people in our county. Over the years we have relied heavily on unlicensed spectrum to deliver broadband services to our constituents who have no other choices. We have been ignored by the cellular industry, the cable company, and the local phone company. Initially Verizon and now Frontier, our local phone company in Harrison county Indiana, collected millions of dollars in USF and now CAF but has made virtually no improvement to or no expansion of broadband availability. We offer speeds in excess of 50Mbps over Fixed Wireless. The CBRS band is critical to the future of our rural community and the Internet access so desperately needed by our residents and businesses. Each year customer demands for bandwidth double. Gaining access to the CBRS spectrum means we can continue to grow and evolve as our customers needs expand. Changes to the CBRS auction rules to increase the size of PALs to PEAs would make it impossible for Portative to acquire any license. The PEA we would need to bid on includes 364,000 people and spans 22 counties in Indiana and Kentucky. Each of the rural counties have different fixed wireless providers, none who want to or who could afford to bid on a license the size of a PEA , most have no plans to expand beyond the communities they live and work in. By using Census Tracts for the auction smaller licenses becomes much more obtainable to providers who are focusing on bringing broadband to the often left behind rural areas of our country. By using PEAs instead of PALs you virtually guarantee that the licenses end up in the hands of just a few companies who have shown time and again they have no interest in providing broadband to rural America. Portative Technologies opposes the proposal to increase the size of PALs to PEAs and intends to participate if Census Tracts are utilized instead. As a small business we are the ones in this country who continually bridge the broadband gap for rural America. Sincerely, David Hulsebus President Portative Technologies, LLC