Satellite Industry Wants Continued Access to E Band
Satellite interests resisted keeping non-terrestrial services out of the 70/80/90 GHz bands or making fixed satellite service (FSS) secondary to terrestrial use there (see 2112030056), in docket 20-133 reply comments this week. The FCC is considering high-altitude platform systems operations…
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in the bands. Amazon Kuiper said it backs a "unified, service-agnostic, light-licensing and link registration framework -- such as the one proposed by SpaceX for 'pencil-beam' antennas" as a way to increase use of the bands while fostering coexistence. It said FSS being secondary in the bands would be inefficient, especially since that spectrum's terrestrial use is limited to high-throughput transmissions over very short distances. Geneva Communications also said it backs SpaceX's proposal. The Satellite Industry Association said there are already co-primary FSS spectrum allocations in the bands and some satellite operators are developing networks that will operate there. SpaceX suggested coexistence in the bands via equivalent isotropically radiated power limits toward the horizon for FSS gateways, creating small coordination areas and eliminating the need for keep-out zones or caps on the number of earth stations. Aeronet Global's study of coexistence between scheduled dynamic data links and FSS in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz bands doesn't take a broad-enough look at possible SDDL interference to geostationary and non-geostationary operations in the bands, with GSO earth stations particularly susceptible to interference from SDDL aircraft transmissions, Hughes said. It said the Aeronet study claims that any alignment of SDDL aircraft beams and GSO satellite beams will be brief don't consider the stationary position of GSOs relative to the ground, which contributes to a longer aircraft/GSO beam alignment. Aeronet outside counsel didn't comment. TechFreedom said the FCC should allow use of 70 MHz beyond 5G. “The lone holdouts to broadening the uses of the 70 GHz are some 5G users, who covet the spectrum for wireless backhaul operations, to the exclusion of new uses (and apparently to the exclusion of existing allocations as well),” the group said: “Engineering changes, history changes, and we can’t afford to go ‘all in’ on 5G if it means robbing all other users of spectrum and shutting down technological innovation. Instead, the FCC must balance the need for more 5G spectrum with existing allocations and other spectrum users’ needs.”