Group of wireless carriers, GPS interests, airlines and others ur...
Group of wireless carriers, GPS interests, airlines and others urged NTIA Dep. Dir. Michael Gallagher against relaxing ultra-wideband (UWB) rules. Letter sent late Mon. referred to current “intergovernmental discussions” on review of UWB rules adopted by FCC last Feb.…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Commission is expected to act next month on petitions for reconsideration of last year’s order. Latest letter to NTIA cites technical and regulatory approach being developed in Europe that came to light at ITU Study Group meeting last week in Geneva (CD Jan 21 p3). Study group met for first time to resolve international UWB policy issues, including definitions and operational and technical characteristics. Letter cited emissions mask under development by Conference of Postal & Telecom Administrations (CEPT), which letter to Gallagher said “protects public safety and a variety of commercial and government applications while preserving the potential of existing digital services and technologies to continue to innovate.” Letter was signed by Air Transport Assn. of America, American Airlines, AT&T Wireless, Delta Airlines, Lockheed Martin, Nortel, PanAmSat, Qualcomm, Sirius Satellite Radio, Sprint, U.S. GPS Industry Council, others. Companies and groups argued that CEPT’s approach factored in “technical and practical parameters” of UWB technology and recognizing need to offer more interference protection to critical services below 3.1 GHz. “CEPT also concludes that UWB cannot fully use a staircase spectrum mask as developed by the FCC, and that an additional advantage of a slope mask is that such a mask does not reduce the performance of UWB products,” letter said. CEPT approach also anticipated that 98% of all UWB applications would be for measurement and communications systems. To that end, it said it offered more protection to safety-of-life systems at or below 1 GHz than did FCC approach. It urged no change in existing UWB rules, including: (1) No communications below 3.1 GHz. (2) No relaxation of existing emission limits, including GPS. (3) Protection of noise floor in bands in national airspace. (4) No expansion of eligibility below 3.1 GHz to use different categories of UWB devices. Letter acknowledged that European approach still was in developmental stages. “While Europe’s balanced approach will ensure that the EU will reap maximum economic benefit from the ongoing digital innovation of all sectors, and including UWB, the U.S. may well find itself at a competitive disadvantage from raising the noise floor in all sectors of its digital services,” letter said.