5.9 GHz Rules Headline Busy Agenda Pai Proposed for November Meeting
The lead item at the FCC’s Nov. 18 commissioners’ meeting would reallocate the 5.9 GHz band for Wi-Fi and cellular vehicle-to-everything, with no set aside for dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), which has occupied the band for 20 years (see 2010270061). Pai also proposed votes on internet-based telecommunications relay service (TRS) rules, program carriage disputes, a proposed unified license for numerous satellite and blanket-licensed earth station operations and a draft NPRM seeking comment on use of the 17.3-17.8 GHz band for satellite downlinks. Pai said the NPRM also would propose including the 17.3-18.3, 18.8-19.4, 19.6-19.7, 27.5-28.35 and 28.6-29.1 GHz bands in an “extended Ka-band,” with routine license application processing criteria for earth stations communicating with geostationary orbit satellites.
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Everything could change if Democratic candidate Joe Biden is elected president next week, industry and FCC officials told us. After a change in control at the White House, other chairmen have found their hands tied, with Congress and FCC members from the other party objecting to major actions before the next administration starts. The 5.9 GHz changes, which have the support of Democrats, could be an exception (see 2010190040).
“While DSRC has been stuck in neutral for the past two decades, Wi-Fi has flourished,” Pai blogged. He noted the FCC granted temporary access to more than 100 wireless ISPs to use 5.9 GHz during the COVID-19 pandemic. Providers from New York City to Luckey, Ohio, said use of the band “helped them increase speeds, decrease congestion, and extend coverage areas,” Pai said: “The new rules that we will be considering next month would create a path for these WISPs to use this spectrum permanently.”
DSRC advocates “will undoubtedly complain about this decision,” Pai said. “But here’s the plain truth: DSRC has done virtually nothing over the past 21 years to improve automotive safety. ... time after time, we’ve been told that success for DSRC is just around the corner. But time after time, those predictions have proven false.”
The new rules make the lower 45 MHz available for unlicensed uses like Wi-Fi, said an FCC news release. The upper 30 MHz would be allocated to C-V2X. The order “includes a proposed timeline and technical parameters for transitioning the limited number of incumbent Intelligent Transportation Systems licensees” to the upper 30 MHz portion and adopts “technical rules to enable full-power outdoor unlicensed operations in the lower 45 megahertz portion of the band,” said the release.
The TRS NPRM addresses an issue before commissioners since last year. “When the Commission first authorized use of the Internet to provide TRS, it decided as an interim measure” that TRS fund contributors should pay the costs of providing internet-based TRS “based only on their interstate telecommunications revenue,” Pai said. The NPRM would expand the TRS fund contribution base for two forms of internet-based TRS -- the video relay service and IP relay service, he said. The change would mean “providers of intrastate voice communications must contribute to the TRS Fund for the support of these services as well,” he said: “This rule change would ensure fair treatment of intrastate and interstate service providers in TRS funding and the long-term sustainability of the TRS Fund.”
Pai said the satellite frequency NPRM is driven by a need for more downlink capacity for high-throughput satellite communications. Proposed use of the 17.3-17.8 GHz band would be subject to technical rules for preventing harmful interference.
Current FCC satellite rules have the agency issuing separate licenses for earth stations and satellites in a satellite system, and that separate licensing redundancy creates a regulatory hurdle that can slow deployment of new services, Pai said. Allowing the option of authorizing both blanket-licensed earth stations and satellites through a unified license would align the buildout requirements for earth stations and satellites while also cutting paperwork, he said. Commissioners approved an NPRM in November creating an optional unified license for space stations and earth stations operating in a geostationary, fixed-satellite service network (see 1811150028).
The agency will also vote on a media modernization report and order on changing FCC rules for resolving carriage disputes between programming vendors and MVPDs to encourage timely filing of complaints and modify the effective date of program carriage decisions from the administrative law judge to match other ALJ decisions, the blog post said. The rule change would mean a one-year shot clock for a vendor to file a complaint would begin running “when an MVPD rejects or fails to acknowledge a request for program carriage or request to negotiate for program carriage,” the blog said. “We would also harmonize our rules, where possible, for the resolution of program carriage, program access, retransmission consent, and open video system (OVS) complaints in these areas,” Pai said.