The Senate Communications Subcommittee plans a Dec. 5 hearing on implementation of the Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless Act, the Senate Commerce Committee said Tuesday. The Mobile Now Act was enacted as part of the FY 2018 omnibus spending bill (see 1803230038). The law requires DOD and other federal agencies to identify at least 255 MHz of spectrum for broadband use by 2022. It also requires the FCC and NTIA to identify at least 100 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use below the 8 GHz band. Wireless Infrastructure Association President Jonathan Adelstein and New America's Open Technology Institute Director Sarah Morris are among those set to testify. Also on deck are CTIA Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann, Cisco Senior Director-Technology and Spectrum Policy Mary Brown and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Mayor Paul TenHaken (R). The panel begins at 10 a.m. in 216 Hart.
The FCC and Energy Department have nothing to fear from low-power Wi-Fi in the 6 GHz band, said the Wi-Fi Alliance, responding to DOE concerns. The alliance supports “rigorous protection of those and other critical incumbent licensed uses of the 6 GHz band,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. “The FCC’s proposal does just that by contemplating that the immediate unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band will be limited to low-power devices operating indoors only, ensuring that there will be no impact on incumbent operations like those of the water and energy industries,” the group said: Higher-power use of the band “will be subject to fully developed and tested automatic frequency coordination systems.”
Wi-Fi uses being considered for the 6 GHz band are “fundamentally incompatible with mobile broadcast operations used for electronic newsgathering,” NAB told FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff, per a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. Proposed solutions for protecting electronic newsgathering and other mobile uses of the spectrum “will be entirely ineffective,” the group said. Restricting unlicensed operations to indoor use won’t provide protection because electronic newsgathering itself frequently takes place indoors, and “there is no reason to believe that WiFi signals from indoor access points and devices will in fact remain indoors,” the association said. The FCC shouldn’t allow unlicensed operation in portions of the 6 GHz band allocated for mobile, NAB said. Others are expressing concern about opening up the band (see 1911080033).
Critical infrastructure and public safety groups lined up against the FCC’s NPRM on unlicensed 6 GHz band use, in a Friday letter to Chairman Ajit Pai: “Given the significant risk that the proposed unlicensed operations could have on mission-critical networks that are used to protect the safety of life, health and property, and provide essential services to individuals, businesses, governments and others across the nation, unlicensed operations should only be permitted in the 6 GHz band if the Commission adopts more stringent interference protections for co-channel and adjacent channel microwave systems, including proven technology to mitigate the risk of interference by prior coordination of unlicensed operations.” Proposed mitigation of automated frequency coordination “is theoretical in nature and has not been tested or proven to work,” said associations for gas, petroleum, water, railroad and power industries, plus the International Association of Fire Chiefs, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and Utilities Technology Council. Others also have concerns (see 1911080052). Industry studies failed to lessen New York concerns about possible interference from unlicensed 6 GHz band use, the city wrote the FCC, posted Friday in docket 18-295: Broadcom, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and New America studies didn’t fully examine all potential interference cases or adequately show negative impact interference would cause critical public safety communications. "The potential influx of low powered devices operating in this critical band [could] impact the ability to isolate interference, an already difficult task compounded by the sheer number of devices operating" in the city, New York said. “Adopt more stringent interference protections, including for co-channel and adjacent channel operations.” Proposed mitigations are “unproven, untested, and have not yet been built to mission critical standards,” the municipality said. New York said it met last week with Broadcom, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Qualcomm and New America, and the companies presented their proposals for unlicensed use in the band. The businesses discussed a lidar study "conducted without the City’s prior knowledge or participation" that covered fixed service links licensed for public safety operations in the city, and a multipath fading study. New York has "significant concerns with the proposals generally" and the studies and those concerns have been filed with the commission. The companies and New America didn't comment Friday or declined to comment.
Wi-Fi Alliance President Edgar Figueroa spoke with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai about the importance of the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi. Pai said in a recent speech he recognizes the importance of the band to unlicensed (see 1910220057). “Significant enhancements and innovation in Wi-Fi connectivity will become available through the use of 160 megahertz wide channels,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295: "That, coupled with the ever-increasing congestion in currently-available unlicensed spectrum, is why Commission action in this proceeding, making the 5925-7125 MHz band available for Wi-Fi, is so important.”
Companies and associations urged opening the 6 GHz band for sharing with Wi-Fi, writing FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. “The Wi-Fi industry powers 13 billion devices worldwide,” said Tuesday's letter in docket 18-295: “Wi-Fi has become the single most important wireless technology for American consumers and businesses.” The letter notes no new mid-band spectrum has been made available for Wi-Fi for 20 years, “causing a severe shortage for a wireless technology that handles 75 percent of mobile data traffic.” Apple, Boingo Wireless, Broadcom, Charter Communications, Cisco, the Consortium for School Networking, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Juniper Networks, Marvell, Microsoft, Netgear, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Philips North America, Public Knowledge, Qualcomm, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, Sony Electronics, Wireless ISP Association and Wisper Internet were among signers.
Federated Wireless demonstrated a fully functional automated frequency coordinator (AFC) prototype for unlicensed services in the citizens broadband radio service band "while ensuring protection of existing services,” said Chief Technology Officer Kurt Schaubach and others in FCC meetings. An AFC can “enable new unlicensed services in the 6 GHz band as quickly as possible.” Federated discussed “potential coexistence issues at the C-Band/CBRS band edge, and the opportunity to leverage automated spectrum access tools to accelerate deployment of new terrestrial broadband services in the C-Band,” said a filing in docket 17-258, posted Friday. Federated met aides to Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Brendan Carr and Jessica Rosenworcel and Wireless Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology staff, it reported. "Industry has coalesced around the need for an AFC for a wide variety of use cases.”
The U.S. should push to open the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi and oppose efforts at the World Radiocommunication Conference to study it for other use, high-tech players said in a letter posted Monday in docket 17-183. They asked the FCC "to remain steadfast to the goal of opening the 6 GHz band to unlicensed use and to consistently work toward this goal with respect to both its domestic and international agendas. ... Our companies, all headquartered in the U.S., are pushing hard to preserve the nation’s technological leadership. The U.S. is the world leader in unlicensed technologies, and specifically in Wi-Fi.” Some want ITU to evaluate the band for international mobile telecom use. “A technology is recognized as IMT through a formal, lengthy ITU process,” the companies said: “As part of the U.S. Delegation to the WRC, the FCC should oppose including 6 GHz in an IMT study.” Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Microsoft and Ruckus Networks signed. Intel officials urged use of the band for Wi-Fi in meetings with all commissioners, except Geoffrey Starks. They also met with Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp.
IEEE filed an updated “Standard for Safety Levels with Respect to Human Exposure to Electric, Magnetic and Electromagnetic Fields, 0 Hz to 300 GHz,” at the FCC. The document, developed over several years by the IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety, “provides exposure criteria and limits to protect people against established adverse health effects associated with electric, magnetic and electromagnetic field exposure,” IEEE said in docket 13-84, posted Tuesday. The standard is “a substantial improvement over the older 1991 version used by the FCC in 1996 to develop the current US regulations related to safe RF exposure,” IEEE said.
Alex Roytblat, Wi-Fi Alliance senior director-regulatory affairs, met FCC officials to urge sharing of the 6 GHz band with Wi-Fi. The group “emphasized that an immediate need for additional spectrum capacity is driven by the ever-greater role Wi-Fi plays in delivering broadband connectivity and that the 6 GHz band remains ideally suited,” said a filing in docket 18-295, posted Thursday: “An overly restrictive regulatory approach of mandating automatic frequency coordination on all 6 GHz uses cases would effectively preclude any unlicensed operations until commercially-viable AFC systems are developed and certified, which may take years.” The band is needed to address “Wi-Fi spectrum congestion” and roll out Wi-Fi 6, the new generation of service, the alliance said. Roytblat met with Chief Julius Knapp and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology, and Aaron Goldberger, aide to Chairman Ajit Pai.