Globalstar TLPS Draft Order Faces Industry Criticism, Lacks Votes
The FCC Globalstar broadband terrestrial low-power service (TLPS) draft order on circulation (see 1605130059) is facing pushback from critics, with a number of parties in recent days meeting with officials to urge different approaches or particular safeguards. The draft order has been circulating for more than two weeks and has only Chairman Tom Wheeler's vote, with the remaining commissioners having yet to decide, informed sources told us Wednesday. The FCC said it couldn't confirm vote status.
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.
The FCC-proposed approach "is problematic and risks permitting significant consumer damage," the Entertainment Software Association said in a filing Tuesday in docket 13-213 reporting on ESA, Microsoft, Nintendo of America and Sony lobbying aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. ESA urged the FCC to give Globalstar permanent authority only after reviewing data from deployment assessments and confirming a lack of harm to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. ESA said any adoption of the draft order should come with what it called "minimal safeguards," including access to deployment locations and to equipment Globalstar will use, advance notice of testing and setting up objective metrics for gauging Globalstar’s transmissions' effects on unlicensed operations. The association said the FCC should only authorize TLPS at specific operating parameters, including transmit power, that line up with the parameters Globalstar followed in previous demonstrations.
Cox Enterprises and NCTA made a similar case about power levels in meetings with advisers to Commissioners Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Rosenworcel. According to an ex parte filing Tuesday in the docket, Cox Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Barry Ohlson and NCTA Senior Vice President-Law and Regulatory Policy Rick Chessen made a variety of suggestions for FCC adoption of the draft order, such as setting of power limits that line up with the power levels relied upon in the record -- namely the 100 MW used at a previous FCC Technology Experience Center demo. Cox/NCTA said the FCC should ensure it has an opportunity to review the data gathered before granting permanent authority, and name CableLabs as one of the test sites since it will invite hearing aid interests, game console makers and other stakeholders to run tests at its facility. Cox/NCTA said, instead of a one-year test of TLPS' effects on consumer devices in the 2.4 GHz band, the agency should rely on its traditional special temporary authority model, paired with CableLabs-suggested testing.
The commission needs to make clear that even it if relaxes or ends restrictions on TLPS deployment after the first year, it's willing to act if further deployments show destructive interference to unlicensed operations, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld told Edward Smith, an aide to Chairman Tom Wheeler, according to an ex parte filing Tuesday. It said Feld likened that to the agency’s 2013 Progeny order that required allowing unlicensed device usage in the band even though no individual devices were protected more than others under Part 15 rules that govern unlicensed transmissions (see 1306070030). While individual Part 15 devices don’t get interference protection, PK said the public interest is served by not letting any licensee “effectively foreclose use of the unlicensed space.”
Wireless Communications Association International -- which has been critical of Globalstar's TLPS plans (see 1512140046 and 1511020016) -- is continuing its lobbying on possible interference with educational broadband and broadband radio services. In an ex parte filing in the docket Tuesday, WCAI said it and Sprint met with Pai aide Brendan Carr to repeat its case of Globalstar's obligation to prevent any such interference and its arguments against the parameters of TLPS' proposed out-of-band-emissions (OOBE) mask. WCAI/Sprint said Globalstar should be required to show to some telecom certification organization compliance with whatever OOBE limits the FCC puts on.
“These companies, many of which have their own competitive plans for a wi-fi based service, are merely repeating claims they raised earlier," Globalstar said in a statement Wednesday. "The Commission's staff, including the International Bureau, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, evaluated those claims when drafting and finalizing the circulated order. Based on our high-level understanding of the order, we are willing to comply with the proposals of the Commission's own independent experts and hope the Commissioners agree with the findings based on the engineering expertise of its Staff.”