FCC Order Would Push Wider Use of 4.9 GHz Public Safety Band
FCC commissioners will vote Sept. 30 on an order giving states the opportunity to lease 4.9 GHz band spectrum, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai blogged. Pai said it remains underutilized.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
“Unfortunately, only about 3.5% of potential licensees -- less than 1 out of 25 -- have actually taken advantage of this spectrum,” Pai said: “A barrier to wireless deployment in this band is the unusual licensing framework. Public safety licensees are permitted to use their spectrum only for public safety purposes, with no exclusivity, and share the band by ad-hoc coordination to avoid interference."
The band has been allocated for public safety use since 1992. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly predicted the FCC would address it this year. The recently formed Public Safety Spectrum Alliance sought to keep the band in public safety’s hands, allocating it to FirstNet.