Pressure Grows on FCC to Release Wireless Backhaul Notice
Pressure is growing on the FCC to issue a promised notice of inquiry allowing the use of high-power devices in rural areas for wireless backhaul. The issue surfaced last week at CTIA’s annual meeting in Las Vegas. Sources said Monday the status of the NOI is unclear, but it could potentially be released as part of the so-called consensus agenda under acting Chairman Michael Copps.
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.
FiberTower, the Rural Telecommunications Group, CompTel and Sprint Nextel have a long-standing proposal before the FCC asking it to dedicate a part of the broadcast white spaces spectrum for fixed, licensed services, including critical wireless backhaul services. In approving its white spaces order in November, commissioners also agreed to release an NOI on the use of some of the spectrum for backhaul. All three current commissioners said in their statements on the white spaces order that they were pleased the FCC had also agreed to release the backhaul NOI.
During a CTIA panel discussion last week, Michele Farquhar, former Wireless Bureau chief who represents the coalition, asked Commissioner Robert McDowell about the status of the NOI.
“We tried. There is a commitment to try to do perhaps a notice of inquiry, which is not even a baby step or a half baby step towards that,” McDowell said in response. “The quizzical thing was that at that meeting … you had three commissioners saying there should be a further notice on this, but there wasn’t a further notice, even though the majority of the commission said there should be. I wholeheartedly support examining that. I think that spectrum is very ripe for helping with the backhaul challenges that you all face.”
Joseph Sandri, senior vice president of government and regulatory affairs at FiberTower, said Monday the group likely will seek meetings with commissioners and staff on the status of the notice. Wireless backhaul offers numerous advantages over wireline-based connections, Sandri said. “You can literally cover a hundred miles and you're talking less than $100,000 for equipment rather than millions to put in fiber,” he said in an interview. That possibility should be attractive to the Congress, as well as NTIA and RUS, as the two agencies implement their broadband stimulus programs, he said. “You can really solve a national problem and spread the tax dollars much more efficiently to get an area served.”
The issue most recently by the FiberTower-led group raised in a filing on the FCC’s comprehensive rural broadband strategy. “The Commission’s failure to authorize fixed, licensed services in at least a small portion of the White Spaces (and its failure to reserve any spectrum for such use on further review) compromises the significant benefits of expanded use of the White Spaces and key goals the Commission sought to achieve in the White Spaces proceeding -- including increased broadband deployment.”