CEO Chet Kanojia and others from Starry updated FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on the company’s plans for a “nationwide, next generation, gigabit-capable fixed wireless network.” Starry discussed progress on its technology ecosystem “as it transitions into its second-generation base station, transceiver, and WiFi access point,” said a filing in docket 14-177, posted Tuesday. Starry urged the FCC to promulgate rules on coordinated licensed sharing in the lower 37 GHz band.
Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, told a Silicon Flatirons conference Thursday that protections against spectrum vulnerability have to be built into design. People have to recognize that “because they’re using the airwaves at times, they may be vulnerable to interference,” he said at the conference streamed from Boulder, Colorado. Device and network flexibility is important, Knapp said. Most cellphones contain more than a dozen radio transmitters, he said: “They’re capable of operating in different modes … making trade-offs for the signals not getting through.” Challenges will get harder, Knapp said. “The downside is if you’re looking at spectrum vulnerabilities, there are lots of bands to be concerned about,” he said. “We’ve got a lot more things out there that are relying on the airwaves.” Every device generates “some spurious noise and contributes to the soup,” he said. Managing spectrum isn’t easy, he said. “We’re always trying to put new things on airwaves and allow for innovation for the new applications that you see coming out every day,” Knapp said: “For the incumbents, what they care about is it’s not going to disrupt the services.” The question becomes what data do you collect on interference, Knapp said. “If you’ve got a phone and its throughput is reduced because of the noise level, how would you know?” he asked. “There’s immediately privacy concerns when you start collecting this kind of data.” It’s difficult for FCC engineers to gauge whether data is reliable and figure out how to interpret and analyze it, he said. “I know don’t if there are easy answers there,” he said. It’s important “to anticipate every way some 12-year-old who is up to no good has figured out a way to undo all your protections,” he said. We’re trying to replace wires with wireless, Knapp said. He said 5G will “greatly expand the use cases … coming for connectivity.” Enforcement actions help but are complex, Knapp said. “These aren’t like parking tickets,” he said. The Enforcement Bureau has to do the investigation, then “build a case” against violators, he said. The FCC is focused on jammers and goes after them, he said: “It’s tough because of all the different ways that people can find to get them out there.” Everybody "has a piece of this, everybody plays a role” on security, Knapp said: “There are so many different agencies that are involved in trying deal with the cyber issues and the kinds of things we’re talking about today.” Network operators, equipment designers, standards organizations and app developers all have responsibilities, he said: Don’t “think about this afterwards because then it becomes a big problem and very expensive to fix,” he said: Danger comes when people think that “'I’m following the security standard, what could possibly happen?'” Wireless devices pose a special problem, said Pierre de Vries, co-director of the Spectrum Policy Initiative at Silicon Flatirons. For wireless devices to work, “they have to be open to the world because if your radio can’t hear anything, it doesn’t operate,” he said: “They don’t have the refuge of hiding behind the wire or fiber.” The question is: “How do you secure something that everybody has access to,” de Vries said.
Wells Fargo’s Jennifer Fritzsche sees industry enthusiasm about the citizens broadband radio service, after the firm held a conference on the topic Tuesday. “Enthusiasm for the spectrum and its multifaceted use cases was shared by many participants representing different layers of the ecosystem,” the analyst told investors Wednesday. “We believe we are in the early innings in learning how CBRS spectrum and shared use deployment model will revolutionize wireless network deployments in the future. As one of the few mid-band spectrum [bands] now available for commercial use, CBRS has garnered the attention of service providers (i.e.: wireless and cable) but also new players like technology companies and enterprises for their own specific use cases.”
Get more information on critical 6 GHz transmissions before approving sharing with Wi-Fi and other unlicensed users, the National Spectrum Management Association filed, posted Thursday in docket 18-295. “It is critical for the FCC to assess the extent to which current operations in the 6 GHz band support mission-critical services, and the operational and network growth criteria for those services, as a fundamental starting point for assessing the feasibility of introducing additional services into the band,” NSMA said: That "should take the form of either an FCC Fixed Service Database enhancement, or an audit or a functionally equivalent official study finding.” Require use of a testbed to study sharing “under realistic conditions,” the group said. The agency is studying how the band can be shared with Wi-Fi (see 1909090057).
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology extended through March 31 a waiver of the push notification requirements for TV white spaces devices. The waiver dates to a 2015 order updating Part 15 rules (see 1508060025). Several parties filed petitions for reconsideration on the push notification requirements, OET said Wednesday. “Given the complexity of the issues, ... there was good cause to grant a waiver of the requirements" and the waiver will remain in effect for 180 days or until the Commission takes final action on the petitions for reconsideration, OET said: “Because the petitions for reconsideration remain under active consideration, the reasons supporting the original waiver remain valid and a further time extension is warranted. This action is being taken without prejudice relative to the merits of these petitions.”
Local governments and their advocates want more FCC action related to RF safety and wireless including 5G, they told a conference in Tampa Monday. General Counsel Nancy Werner of meeting sponsor NATOA noted that federal law bars towns from considering cellular structures based on such emissions, even though communities may want such power. "For years now," NATOA been asking for an FCC update about RF safety, she noted, and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has an item circulating (see 1908080061). "I don’t think that what we will get from the FCC will appease the concerns of residents," Werner said. "I suspect that the wireless industry knows that isn’t going to be good enough." It’s unclear it's "going to address the specific concerns" of small cells, said the lawyer, who nonetheless hopes it does. "There's an opportunity for us to educate on what 5G is" that could include safety considerations, said T-Mobile Principal Corporate Counsel-Land Use Dylan Fuge. "In explaining what it can do and sort of the transformation, I think there’s the perception that it’s really different" and this generation "came out of the ether," Fuge said. "I think there’s the feeling that it’s the ‘other,'" he added. "There’s an opportunity to do some work there." Government can hold public events on this issue, said Austin Telecom and Regulatory Affairs Officer Rondella Hawkins. An official from another city, speaking from the audience, said that "we just feel like our hands are tied under current law." The FCC declined to comment. CTIA's "pleased" Pai's item "would preserve the existing guidance for health and safety, in keeping with the international scientific consensus," emailed a spokesperson for that association. "We look forward to the FCC completing the proceeding soon."
The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) fired back at August tech company filings pressing for radio local access network operations in the 6 GHz band, a key band for Wi-Fi (see 1909090057). “These submissions are part of the proponents’ ongoing, as yet unsuccessful, effort to establish that certain 6 GHz unlicensed RLANs can operate free of automatic frequency control, without causing harmful interference to Fixed Service (FS) receivers,” the coalition filed, posted Monday in docket 18-295: “Our analyses have shown the opposite: that uncontrolled RLANs at any useful power are statistically certain to cause harmful interference to the FS. For that reason, they cannot lawfully be authorized.”
T-Mobile asked the FCC for waiver for its business agreement with Dish Network tied to its buy of Sprint (see 1907260071) for the upcoming high-band Auction 103. T-Mobile got similar waiver with Sprint for the last two high-band auctions and the December auction of the upper 37, 39 and 47 GHz bands (see 1908270033). “While nationwide carrier applicants may not enter agreements with one another regarding licenses subject to auction, the prohibition does not apply to pre-existing assignments of licenses and other agreements that do not relate to the licenses that are subject to auction,” T-Mobile said Tuesday in docket 19-59. It's asking out of “an abundance of caution.” T-Mobile and SoftBank, parent of Sprint, filed in docket 18-197 that a lawyer representing them spoke with FCC Chief of Staff Matthew Berry on “the Commission’s competition analysis, including the network improvements and efficiencies achievable through the merger and projected in the Applicants’ network and economic modeling.”
Amazon encouraged FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to open the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed use. The FCC took comment earlier this year and saw lots of opposition to sharing with unlicensed (see 1902250054). “The availability of unlicensed spectrum is of great interest to Amazon and our customers,” Amazon said Friday in docket 18-295. “Access to unlicensed spectrum is essential for the creation and growth of groundbreaking consumerāoriented technologies.”
The idea Ligado's proposed low-power terrestrial service might interfere with unfiltered GPS devices is unsupported, since all receiver makers are expected to implement filtering tech, company officials told an FCC Wireline Bureau staffer, recounted a docket 11-109 posting Friday. Ligado pointed to assertions by components maker u-blox that nearly every GPS receiver uses one or two surface-acoustic wave filters for attenuation of out-of-band signals. Ligado separately discussed its co-existence with GPS in a call with FCC bureau and office officials and an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai.