Bureau Chief Offers Details on White-Space Devices, Database
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Mobile devices that don’t use a planned geolocation database to avoid interfering with other uses of the TV white spaces (CD Nov 5 p1) will have to jump through hoops including approval by the FCC commissioners, the acting Wireless Bureau chief said. Jim Schlichting said late Wednesday he expects the order to be released “in a matter of days.”
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The order won’t set out the details of how and by when the database will be created, Schlichting said at the Wireless Communications Association Symposium. But the FCC wants it running by the time devices are approved “so there’s not a bottleneck,” he said. The commissioners are considering whether they or FCC staff will wrangle the logistical details, he said.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin stressed Thursday to reporters at the conference that once a chipset and its interaction with an antenna are approved, the set can be used in any product, without further commission study. Products relying on sensing alone would go through lab and field tests and public comment on staff recommendations before going to the commissioners, Schlichting said.
“It’s a much more controlled environment than you usually see with unlicensed, and we think that’s the right approach,” said Steve Sharkey, Motorola senior director for regulatory and spectrum policy. He said it was good for the FCC to move forward based on use of the database and to consider allowing reliance on sensing devices as they prove themselves.
Device power limits worry some white-spaces boosters, but “we think this is an ongoing process, and we think taking a more conservative approach and evolving it as people become more comfortable is the right approach,” Sharkey said. “Whether we will seek recon[sideration] would depend on the details of the order and how it’s worded.” Opening the white spaces to unlicensed devices presents many opportunities for Motorola’s Canopy product line in rural areas, Sharkey said.
Harry Perlow, a senior Sprint engineer, said from the audience that WiMAX access using the white spaces would make a good rural complement to Clearwire’s planned WiMAX service using spectrum in a different band, some of it contributed by Sprint. “WiMAX is certainly a technology that would be suitable for this band,” Sharkey said. “That’s certainly on the table.”
“We still have a long road ahead of us,” said Marvin Ammori, an assistant law professor at the University of Nebraska who came from Free Press. “We have a few concerns about the decision. The entire proceeding was remarkably conservative when it came to interference protection. The order was based on “unlikely” interference scenarios and assumed that incumbents should suffer no interference, instead of balancing risks and benefits, he said. The power limits expected for channels adjacent to digital TV stations are “very problematic,” Ammori said. He and Sharkey predicted that the federal appeals court hearing the inevitable challenge to the order will uphold it -- unless, Ammori said, it goes to the District of Columbia Circuit.
Commissioner Michael Copps “had it right” when he said Tuesday in response to the FCC order that devoting some white spaces spectrum to backhaul should be decided under a notice of inquiry before devices intended for use in the frequencies reach market, said Joseph Sandri, the senior vice president for regulatory and government affairs at FiberTower, a backhaul provider. Service “won’t get there without something like licensed backhaul in rural areas,” because finances preclude using incumbents’ networks for that, he said. “We're pretty confident over time” that the matter will work out all right, Sandri said.