House Communications Subcommittee Presses Stakeholders on Spectrum Use

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai hoped the hearing would “highlight the benefits of unlicensed operations in the 5 GHz band and spur the FCC to take action,” he said in a statement before the hearing (http://fcc.us/1aF2hlU). “Unlicensed use of spectrum is a critical component of a sensible national spectrum policy, increasingly so as mobile broadband becomes the norm. And there is no band better for unlicensed use than 5 GHz.” That band is perfectly suited for the next generation of Wi-Fi, Pai argued. He urged the FCC to move forward with its 5 GHz proceeding and advocated for stages, in which the agency promptly modifies service rules for the U-NII-1 band and ups its power limits. “Likewise, we should act quickly to add 25 MHz to the U-NII-3 band. Among other things, this measure would reduce certification costs for companies manufacturing devices for this band,” he said, referring to these all as “the easier” issues the FCC can deal with in the proceeding.

"I wish I knew what would happen in five years,” said Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, answering questions before the subcommittee. The FCC wants the least interference and for the innovators to flourish. “There’s synergy between license and unlicensed,” complementarily so, he said. “We're going to have to continue to drive spectrum efficiency,” he said, acknowledging the difficulty of sharing at times. He warned of the potential interference with satellite companies as a broader concern of the agency.

Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., zeroed in on the assumption that the automotive industry, despite holding onto certain spectrum for many years, should have to “give it up.” But Toyota InfoTechnology Center Principal Research Manager John Kenney emphasized the needs of intelligent transportation in the 5 GHz band and said the industry is gearing up to deploy. The automotive industry is different and proceeds differently than the consumer electronics industry, he said.

Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., called unlicensed spectrum an “incredible success story” but warned against bands becoming congested. The 5 GHz band could be a test bed for innovation, and its potential must be unlocked, he said, encouraging the administration to pursue an “all-of-the-above” to make spectrum available. Spectrum sharing will be the “new normal,” Waxman said. “I am confident that industry experts can optimize” the 5 GHz band to avoid harmful interference, said subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, advocating for the band’s uses.

Cisco has begun identifying ideas with “real potential” to that end, Toyota’s Kenney said, describing a system in which occupants would vacate the channel when need be and avoid harmful interference. Toyota will work with tech companies to mitigate harmful interference, Kenney told Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. “In five or 10 years, we're going to see a very different driving experience than we have today,” Kenney said, expecting there will be cars able to intelligently help drivers avoid dangerous situations.

The 5 GHz band is “not cleared spectrum” and has incumbent uses, and Cisco “will not settle for less” than ensuring there’s no harmful interference there, said Cisco Chief Technology Officer Bob Friday. “Gigabit Wi-Fi is here, it’s real,” but policymakers need to free up more spectrum, said Friday. He said healthcare is at the leading edge of adopting Wi-Fi and detailed how many devices Cisco connects in that sphere. “They've become highly reliant on Wi-Fi to connect the sensors to all the people,” he said.

Globalstar insisted that efforts to free up spectrum for unlicensed services like Wi-Fi “must be balanced with the need to protect licensed operations,” General Counsel Barbee Ponder told us in a statement. Globalstar is a satellite provider and did not testify. “Globalstar already shares its licensed 5 GHz spectrum with unlicensed interests who are required to operate indoors and ensure that their unlicensed operations will not interfere with our operations, and that is a fair balance,” he said. “Globalstar’s system is unable to tolerate the increased interference that would result from these UNII-1 devices operating outdoors."

"In certain places, we get congestion,” said Comcast Senior Vice President-Business Development Tom Nagel, but gigabit Wi-Fi expands the capacity as well as the number of devices connected: “It'll feel like I'm more connected.” He pointed out the intense growth, “not abating but accelerating,” in Comcast networks. “If we don’t sort of fix this today and really work toward how Wi-Fi’s going to be part of this band, it’s only going to get more expensive down the road.” Nagel urged the FCC to move forward with its 5 GHz proceeding, particularly in the matter of U-NII-1. That’s “by far the easiest decision to make,” he said. Comcast would like to see “really rolling our sleeves up, engineer to engineer, real compromise” on solving the problem on making Wi-Fi work within complicated bands and protect safety within that, too, he said.