Amtrak Seeks Technical Waiver for Wi-Fi Network Along Northeast Corridor
Amtrak asked the FCC to change the rules under which its Wi-Fi network operates so it can offer more robust service along its key Northeast Corridor (NEC). To keep up with customer demands, Amtrak is building a private trackside network…
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along the NEC providing dedicated capacity in the UNII-3 band for Amtrak's Wi-Fi and other broadband-related services, Amtrak told the FCC in a petition. The network could achieve download speeds “measureable in hundreds of megabits per second,” but only if it can use the 5.1 GHz U-NII-1 band in addition to the spectrum it's using, the 5.725-5.825 GHz U-NII-3 band, Amtrak said. “The UNII-1 band could provide Amtrak with a second 80 MHz channel that takes advantage of the IEEE 802.11ac standard and that also assures consistency of coverage in a cost efficient manner,” the railroad said. But under FCC rules non-fixed operations in the UNII-1 band are limited to an output power of 250 mW with antenna gain up to 6 dBi. “Were Amtrak to operate at this power level, it would have to construct three times as many trackside stations to achieve the coverage it already achieves in the 5.8 GHz band,” Amtrak said. “This would dramatically increase Amtrak's capital costs, delay network deployment and otherwise undermine the business case for Amtrak's” network. Amtrak asks instead that it be allowed to operate in both bands under the same technical specifications. The requested waiver “poses no meaningful risk of aggregate interference to Globalstar's satellites in U-NII-1 band,” Amtrak told the FCC. “Even without the requested waiver, Amtrak estimates that it will need to construct less than 800 trackside stations to cover the entire NEC, which is de minimis when compared with, for example, the thousands of outdoor Wi-Fi access points that are or will be deployed in the U-NII-1 and U-NII-3 bands across the entire country.” Globalstar didn't comment.