Public Safety Groups Raise Concerns About Using 6 GHz for 5G
The FCC mid-band spectrum inquiry, asking for advice on bands from 3.7 GHz to 24 GHz that might be suitable for 5G, has run into concerns from public safety groups worried about the 6 GHz band, one of the bands…
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targeted. Commissioners approved 3-0 a mid-band spectrum notice of inquiry Aug. 3 (see 1708030052). The NOI asked about 3.7-4.2, 5.925-6.425 and 6.425-7.125 GHz, but also for suggestions on other suitable spectrum. APCO asked the FCC to move with care, saying the 5.925-6.425 GHz and 6.425-7.125 GHz bands, used for fixed point-to-point microwave links, are essential to public safety agencies. “To avoid negatively impacting public safety communications, APCO urges the Commission to consider bands other than 6 GHz to achieve its flexible spectrum use goals,” the group commented in docket 17-183. “The 6 GHz bands are the most ideal for long haul microwave transmissions for public safety, in some cases throughout entire states. By comparison, higher frequency bands available for public safety use, such as 11 GHz are not as useful given the shorter path lengths and susceptibility to signal attenuation from environmental factors like rain.” The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council said public safety had to move some critical functions to the 6 GHz band now in the agency’s sights. In the early 1990s, the FCC reallocated another critical microwave band, 1.8-2 GHz range “for emerging technology services and required public safety and other critical users to relocate from that band,” NPSTC said. “The 5.925-6.425 GHz band now under consideration for ‘additional flexible use’ is the home to which many of the microwave links were relocated, albeit at increased costs.” The National Academy of Sciences, through its Committee on Radio Frequencies, noted that radio astronomy researchers and others do research on many of the bands being studied for 5G. "As the Commission has long recognized, radio astronomy is a vitally important tool used by scientists to study the universe,” the filing said. “It was through the use of radio astronomy that scientists discovered the first planets outside the solar system, circling a distant pulsar. … Radio astronomy has also enabled the discovery of organic matter and prebiotic molecules outside our solar system, leading to new insights into the potential existence of life elsewhere in our galaxy, the Milky Way.”