The Competitive Carrier Association's objections to a proposed loosening of the 39-month FCC repacking deadline and an expansion of the associated reimbursement fund for broadcasters are “unreasonable and unbalanced,” said NAB in a filing in docket 12-268 Monday. CCA’s “unwillingness to engage in a factual discussion of the repacking challenge” is exposed by its recommendation of punishments for broadcasters who don't complete relocation inside 39 months, NAB said. “None of the sanctions CCA proposes depend on whether a broadcaster’s inability to complete its transition was within its control.” A CCA suggestion that broadcasters could abide by the timeline by beginning preparation work for the repacking now misunderstands the facts of the situation, NAB said. “Obviously, stations cannot possibly know in advance whether or not they will be repacked or to which channel they may be reassigned.” The CCA letter also wrongly dismisses broadcaster concerns about the availability of qualified tower crews, NAB said. The idea that more crews can easily be trained ignores the difficult “unique tasks” associated with broadcast antennas and “the tragic consequences of the wireless industry’s own experience with crash programs of antenna installation using unqualified personnel,” NAB said. Repacking deadlines shouldn't be set until the results of the incentive auction are known, NAB said. "It is irresponsible and unreasonable to take a 'fingers crossed' approach to one of the most complex transitions the Commission has ever undertaken.” “CCA continues to believe that the budget set by Congress and the FCC’s planned timeline based on the Spectrum Act, which was approved by the D.C. Circuit, for broadcaster relocation are reasonable and should be re-affirmed,” said CCA President Steve Berry in an emailed response. “Setting a definitive transition period and enforcing the congressionally mandated budget will encourage forward-auction participation, reallocate more spectrum for mobile broadband use that consumers crave, and help create next-generation technology investment. We continue to support the FCC’s transition timeline and look forward to a successful auction and transition.”
The FCC created a new informational website for the incentive auction, to “fully inform” consumers and “other interested parties,” the Incentive Auction Task Force said in a blog post Friday. It said the website includes a range of materials that explain “why the Commission is conducting the auction, how the auction can benefit the public, how the process works, and what consumers will need to do to continue enjoying over-the-air television stations once the auction concludes.” The site will be “a key component of the Commission’s post-auction consumer education efforts to ensure a smooth transition for over-the-air TV viewers,” the blog post said.
Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless are seeking federal appellate court approval to jointly file one 16,500-word brief in their litigation against the FCC. In an unopposed motion filed Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the two Dish Network designated entities (DEs) said a court order authorized them to separately file two opening briefs of up to 14,000 words each, but they wanted to file a single joint opening "that avoids duplication and significantly reduces the total length of briefing in this matter." But an additional 2,500 words are needed to explain the relevant passages in the agreements in question, the DEs said. The opening briefs are due Jan. 12. The two filed notices of appeal in September challenging an August commission decision denying them the use of bidding credits to buy spectrum in the AWS-3 auction (see 1509180048).
Public Knowledge told the FCC it should ignore broadcaster complaints about the commission's proposal to set aside vacant TV band channels in every market nationwide for unlicensed use after the TV incentive auction. “PK began with the observation that NAB continues to misinterpret both the Commission’s general statutory authority and the Commission’s specific authority pursuant to the 2012 Spectrum Act,” the filing said. “No one proposes to eliminate a single full power broadcast station or Class A [low-power] TV, which the statute requires protecting. Nor will anyone force these stations unwillingly into the VHF band.” In June, the FCC proposed to reserve at least one TV channel in every market for white spaces devices and wireless mics after the incentive auction and repacking (see 1506160043). “All that is at issue here is the post-repacking of secondary services and unlicensed services. Both of which are mentioned in the 2012 Act.” PK officials met with officials from the Media Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology and Incentive Auction Task Force, said the filing posted Thursday in 15-146.
CTIA highlighted the role its members play in pushing the envelope on mobile health and said in comments to the FDA that the wireless industry is well aware of the importance of protecting consumer privacy. The filing was on part of an agency request for comments on “Using Technologies and Innovative Methods to Conduct Food and Drug Administration-Regulated Clinical Investigations of Investigational Drugs.” The average U.S. home has 5.3 connected devices and Americans use more than 11.1 billion MBs of mobile data every day, CTIA said. “The ubiquity of powerful mobile devices, along with their ever-expanding array of sophisticated features and availability of health-related software, creates opportunities to revolutionize clinical trials.” CTIA cited AT&T’s work with the Garrison Geriatric Education and Care Center at Texas Tech University to provide connectivity to embedded pressure sensors and accelerometers in shoe inserts, which gather data in a fall-risk study. Duke University is using Verizon-enabled activity monitors and glucometers to analyze the impact of physical activity on participants with peripheral arterial disease, CTIA said. CTIA and its members understand the importance of protecting patient privacy, the wireless association said. “Protecting clinical trial participant data privacy is a top priority for the wireless industry, which implements a variety of options for consumers to choose when and with whom they share data. More generally, our industry participates in ongoing dialogue with policymakers, privacy advocates, and the health sector to ensure compliance with applicable regulations and norms aimed at protecting health data privacy.” Comments were in docket FDA-201-N-3579.
The White Space Database Administrator Group (WSDBA) said a provision buried in FCC rules approved in August could complicate Wi-Fi in the TV white spaces. The order concedes it doesn’t make sense to make white spaces devices recheck a database every 20 minutes, as some propose, the group said. But the order requires that database administrators “push” information to white space devices in the area where licensed wireless microphones will be used “notifying them of changes in channel availability.” The FCC appears to not recognize “it's not possible to really ‘push’ data to specific devices at a specific location at a specific time” and the requirement will mean white spaces devices will have to poll the database “all the time no matter where they are,” the group said. The requirement “would cause significant burden on the database administrators and white space devices, with many potential real-world costs” including draining battery life of the devices and consuming bandwidth, the kinds of problems the FCC wants to solve, the group said. WSDBA said it represents Comsearch, Frequency Finder, Google, LS telcom, Microsoft, Neustar, Spectrum Bridge and Telcordia. The filing was posted Wednesday in docket 12-268.
The Competitive Carriers Association asked the FCC to hold the TV incentive auction as planned and ignore broadcaster arguments for a transition period beyond the 39 months in the current rules. “The FCC’s planned 39-month transition period is more than enough time for broadcasters to relocate off the 600 MHz spectrum,” CCA President Steve Berry said in a Tuesday news release. “In fact, by the time the 39-month period ends, broadcasters will have had more than seven years to prepare for the introduction of new wireless broadband services that consumers crave. … Instead of asking for more time, broadcasters should be making plans now to relocate.” Patrick McFadden, NAB vice president-spectrum policy, said at the CCA convention in October that forcing all broadcasters off their spectrum by a given date makes little sense and will be unworkable (see 1510080026). “NAB supports a successful incentive auction that is voluntary and realistic in its deadlines," an NAB spokesman said in response. "It is not realistic to think that upwards of 1,000 stations can be repacked into a shrunken TV band in 39 months. Rather than setting an arbitrary 39-month deadline, the FCC should wait until the auction is over to set an end date for when stations turn in their licenses.”
Changes to the FCC’s RF exposure regulations and assessment techniques likely are necessary to enable portable-device applications in the millimeter wave frequency bands, Qualcomm said in a meeting with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, including Chief Julius Knapp. Qualcomm’s comments, in docket 14-177, relate to the FCC’s October NPRM on use of frequency bands above 24 GHz (see 1510230050). “For the mmWave bands under consideration in the NPRM, assessment of RF exposure for portable device applications, such as smartphones and tablets, needs to be done in the near field,” Qualcomm said. “It is important that spatial averaging be used for a meaningful exposure assessment against the limit, as the power density distribution varies drastically in the near field, especially in close proximity of the source.”
If the FCC doesn't change out-of-band emissions limits in wireless mic rules approved in August (see 1508060050), the agency could stifle an entire industry, said Shure in a petition. Shure said it's seeking changes on only a “handful of discrete and noncontroversial issues,” and warned that out-of-band emission (OOBE) limits should instead be those specified by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. “If this requirement is not amended to reflect the entire ETSI OOBE limit as stated in the standard, it will not be feasible for industry to manufacture wireless microphones in the future,” Shure said in an underlined and bolded sentence. The FCC also should allow full use of the 1435-1525 MHz band “where coordination with incumbent spectrum users permits,” not at most 30 MHz, the company said. “The Commission did not seek comment on a 30 megahertz limitation for wireless microphone use of the band, comment was not provided on such a limitation, and no technical or policy justification otherwise exists for such a limitation,” Shure said. Shure also said that for wireless mics operating in the VHF TV band, transmitter power output should be measurable on either a conducted or radiated basis. “This flexibility is needed to allow manufacturers to develop products that will satisfy user expectations and requirements for operation in this band,” Shure said. Sennheiser also sought reconsideration of the mic rules, opposing the 30 MHz limitation and other provisions. The FCC never indicated “access to the 1.4 GHz band would be limited to a set amount of spectrum, let alone that it would be limited to a mere one-third of that band,” the company said. “Because the Commission failed to provide any notice, much less adequate notice, of the possibility that a 30 MHz cap on wireless microphone access to the 1.4 GHz band might be considered, that aspect of the rules must be reconsidered and deleted from the rules.” Sennheiser said the FCC should have adopted the ETSI limits. “It is the industry standard and is sensible from a design perspective, as it allows for maximum use of channels,” Sennheiser said. Comments were in docket 14-166.
Despite reluctance in much of the rest of the world, the U.S. plans to plow ahead on making spectrum available for 5G "in a timely manner," FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Thursday. That the World Radiocommunication Conference-15 said it would look at bands above 6 GHz for 5G but not the 28 GHz band (see 1510230050) -- which had been an FCC priority -- "will not slow the activity in this country," Wheeler said as the commissioners heard a report on WRC-15, which wrapped up last month. Minus 28 GHz, the bands identified by WRC-19 and the bands part of the FCC spectrum frontiers NPRM have significant overlap, said International Bureau Chief Mindel De La Torre. Spectrum frontiers likely will be complete by WRC-19, she said. Identifying global allocations of spectrum is increasingly difficult, De La Torre said. Regional allocations "might be more realistic," she said: WRC footnotes denoting the policy of one or a small collection of nations are increasingly common.