The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment on a Massachusetts Institute of Technology waiver request for its WiTrack System, a swept-frequency ultrawide band indoor medical monitoring device. It uses up to 2.5 GHz in the 6 to 8.5 GHz band “to passively monitor mobility, breathing, and other physiological signals,” without requiring body-worn sensors, OET said. MIT needs a waiver because the device doesn’t comply with a requirement that a Part 15 UWB transmitter use a bandwidth wider than 500 MHz. “MIT states that its WiTrack System would not satisfy this definition because each frequency step is less than 500 MHz in bandwidth ‘at any point in time’ even though the total bandwidth needed for optimal performance exceeds 500 MHz, regardless of the fractional bandwidth,” said Friday's public notice. Comments are due April 18, replies May 3, in docket 19-89. The notice sets the initial comment date as April 18, 2018.
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Thursday on a waiver request by Rohde & Schwarz USA for a security scanning system that uses the 70-80 GHz band. The QPS 201 Personnel Security Scanner system is designed “to detect the presence of concealed metallic and non-metallic threats that may be carried in or underneath the clothing of persons entering locations where the device has been deployed,” OET said: The company claims the QPS 201 “will serve a valuable national security function that cannot be comparably replicated by currently available equipment.” Rohde & Schwarz needs a waiver because all frequencies above 38.6 GHz are classified as “restricted,” except for a few bands where the FCC permits unlicensed operation, OET said. The company also wants to operate at high emissions levels than are permitted by the rules, OET said. Comments are due April 29, replies May 14 in docket 19-88.
The FCC should let any AM station go all digital, Bryan Broadcasting petitioned for rulemaking, posted Tuesday in docket 13-249. The petition recognizes the reality of AM’s interference problem, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford, who represents Bryan. “For those AM stations that did not get a translator, or for those whose AM signal reaches farther than a translator can, other solutions are needed,” Oxenford said Wednesday. The FCC previously has considered allowing a digital shift for AM but never pulled the trigger on allowing it, Oxenford said. It’s likely to be a while before the Bryan petition would lead to a rule change, Oxenford said, though additional stations could ask for experimental authority to shift.
Big tech companies, plus Broadcom and the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC), separately told the FCC they fear nothing from indoor, low-power unlicensed use of 6 GHz spectrum and shouldn’t require frequency coordination. Replies were due Monday on an NPRM, in docket 18-295, with some other commenters urging caution (see 1903180047). “Comments make it clear that in the vast majority of locations, times, and configurations, [radio local access networks] would not be positioned to even potentially cause harmful interference to incumbents,” the tech companies said. Some commenters raise concerns, they said: “With few exceptions, these commenters either provide no empirical support for these claims or repeat flawed arguments that have already been presented and addressed in prior phases of this proceeding.” The filing was signed by Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Marvell Technology, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ruckus Networks. Broadcom separately said fixed-service proponents warn of a threat that doesn’t exist. “FS interests now focus on unlikely corner-case interference scenarios in arguing for additional regulation, Broadcom said: “In the vast majority of situations, however, RLANs will not be positioned to raise any harmful interference concerns at all. And an analysis of FS system operations shows that if the unrealistic combination of improbable events conjured by FS interests somehow were to occur, it would not degrade FS operations in the real world.” The record shows “diverse and strong support” for allowing unlicensed use across all 1,200 MHz from 5925 to 7125 MHz, and “broad support” for low-power and indoor-only use in the U-NII-6 and U-NII-8 segments without a coordination requirement, PISC said. “Base policies on risk-informed interference assessments and not unrealistic worst-case scenarios.” The Open Technology Institute at New America, Consumer Federation of America, Public Knowledge, Consortium for School Networking, Access Humboldt and X-Lab signed. They advised caution. NAB warned “no commenter has proposed an effective mechanism for protecting important broadcast auxiliary services operations” in the U-NII-6 and U-NII-8 bands. “Uncoordinated unlicensed use” here “risks crippling interference to licensed BAS services,” NAB said. Given the “already diverse and critical use of the spectrum, it is not surprising that … comments question the viability of adding millions or possibly billions of unlicensed devices into the band without causing interference to higher priority services that already rely on the spectrum,” said the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council.
Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, urged relatively light-touch rules in the 6 GHz band, meeting Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel on Feb. 19. Public interest groups hope the FCC will authorize use of the band indoors without automated frequency control across the U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 band segments, Calabrese said, he filed in docket 18-122, posted Friday. “Failure to set a power level at which Wi-Fi can operate indoors across the entire 6 GHz band, using off-the-shelf routers and low-cost devices, would sacrifice what is likely to be the greatest benefit of this rulemaking,” Calabrese said: “Without affordable, do-it-yourself access to the 850 megahertz in U-NII-5 and U-NII-7, a majority of homes and small businesses in particular will likely be limited to a single 160 megahertz channel between 6.875 and 7.125 GHz.” Replies were due Monday on a 6 GHz NPRM (see 1903180047).
Unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band may pose a threat to ultra-wideband devices Germany’s Marquardt manufactures, it said in early reply comments in FCC docket 18-295. Replies are due Monday. “It is very important for us and our customers that UWB with [its] demanding power limitations can continue to operate unhindered,” the company said. “Award only the least amount of spectrum required, and at as low a frequency as possible.” Earlier, the UWB Alliance said the FCC should authorize unlicensed use of only the 5.925-6.1 GHz part of the band, with out-of-band emissions below 61 dBm/MHz.
Cisco got special temporary authority from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology to run tests in the 5.9 GHz band, which is being looked at for Wi-Fi (see 1811140061). Most of the tests will be in the lab, Cisco said: “All necessary coordination will be done prior to any operation outside of our test chambers.”
Charter Communications plans a series of citizens broadband radio service-based LTE fixed wireless access network tests around central North Carolina, according to an FCC Office of Engineering and Technology experimental license grant given Monday. Charter said it plans to evaluate such issues as throughput and capacity, data latency and customer acceptability for the upper C-band network using fixed locations and customer premise equipment installed at trial participant homes.
NTCH's claims that the FCC and Dish Network reached a backroom agreement on H-Block spectrum are "unsupported and erroneous," Dish said in a docket 18-1241 intervenor brief (in Pacer) Thursday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Dish said undoing FCC orders and unwinding Auction 96 would throw a monkey wrench into its plans to build out its lower 700 MHz E block, H block and AWS-4 licenses and "strand" millions of dollars of its investments. It said NTCH -- in challenging the agency's H-block actions (see 1812130070) -- didn't cite any statute or case law backing the idea the FCC can't consider the kind of minimum bidding commitment offered by Dish in connection with public interest analysis. Dish said neither it nor the agency concealed the details of Dish's proposal and the commission evaluated it in a public proceeding in which NTCH took part. NTCH outside counsel didn't comment.
Dish Network designated entities' appeal of the FCC order (see 1807130003) reaffirming Wireless Bureau procedures for the DEs to comply with the court's 2017 remand should remain in abeyance since commission proceedings on the court's remand are pending, the agency said in a docket 18-1209 status report (in Pacer) Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.