The FCC sought comment on a proposal (http://xrl.us/bnbhma) by the...

(http://xrl.us/bnbhmk). “Back in 2004, the FCC proposed service rules for the 42-42.5 GHz segment that would have relied on area-wide auctions, much like those at 39 GHz. The FCC never followed through,” said Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher Heald in a blog entry (http://xrl.us/bnbhnj). “Now the FWCC urges it not to, pointing out that the 39 GHz band is severely underutilized, in large part because the auction-related renewal requirements, although intended to encourage rapid build-out, in actual practice have had the opposite effect of deterring construction. Instead, the FWCC favors link-by-link licensing with frequency coordination, a decades-old approach that has shown great success in the 11, 18, and 23 GHz bands, among others.” Lazarus represents the FWCC. Comments are due July 9, replies 15 days later. “The Commission has repeatedly recognized the growing need for broadband spectrum, particularly for backhaul operations that carry data between a wireless provider’s network facilities and the towers that relay the data to and from an end user’s mobile device,” the FWCC said in its petition. “The 42 GHz band is ideally suited to handling broadband backhaul over the relatively short distances encountered in urban and suburban environments, where the demand for wireless broadband service tends to be highest."