Co-Primary Status Focus of Satellite Industry Spectrum Frontiers Lobbying

The rulemaking is an opportunity to supplement the record with input on aggregate interference issues, Stroup said. The order currently suggests the FCC monitor aggregate interference issues, but the satellite industry will seek to have the agency ask questions how such interference could be addressed, Stroup said. That information-gathering step wouldn't slow the process, he said. A satellite executive told us there also will be a lobbying push on getting concrete aggregate interference rules put into the order. Details of those rules aren't finalized, but the satellite industry made numerous suggestions to the FCC during the spectrum frontiers proceeding, the executive said.

The satellite industry also hopes the order will be amended to allow broader deployment of earth stations in the 37-39 GHz band, since they operate on a receive-only basis and wouldn't interfere with 5G operations, Stroup said. Currently, the draft order would limit them to one per partial economic area, he said.

Satellite officials met with Chairman Tom Wheeler aide Edward Smith earlier in the week to push for spectrum frontiers order changes, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 14-177. The filing said industry representatives argued co-primary status in the 28 GHz band "promote[s] effective coordination" with 5G operations and "ensure[s] neither service is an anti competitive gatekeeper to the other's ability to provide service in the U.S." Secondary status "has a clear regulatory meaning in the U.S. and internationally ... and provides insufficient certainty for satellite operations," they said. Satellite officials also pushed for pending 28 GHz earth station applications to be grandfathered for the same protections as already-authorized earth stations. At the meeting were representatives from Boeing, AT&T's DirecTV, EchoStar, Iridium, Lockheed Martin, O3b and ViaSat.

Boeing separately met with staff of Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel about co-primary status between satellite and upper microwave flexible use service in the 37.5-40 GHz band, the company said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in the docket. Boeing had proposed a low earth orbit satellite constellation using 37.5-42.5 GHz downlinks (see 1606230050). It said now that the V-band spectrum generally has been balanced between satellite downlinks and uplinks, and the FCC's allocating 37.5-40 GHz for 5G could help unbalance that. Boeing also said the agency should give more time for its technical talks with 5G proponents about spectrum sharing. It urged the agency to look at other bands for 5G deployment, since some "may be better suited for 5G operations."

Meanwhile, 5G proponents have their own complaints with spectrum frontiers' treatment of satellite issues. The NPRM opens the door to many more earth stations than wireless operators would have wanted, allowing as many as one per county, said Verizon Vice President-Wireless Policy Development Charla Rath during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation panel (see 1606300025) Thursday. Since both satellite and wireless interests are dissatisfied, Rath said, "the commission must have done something right." Satellite operators have voiced concerns about aggregate interference, but Samsung Electronics America Director-Public Policy, Engineering and Technology Robert Kubik said, "We don't expect to see an interference issue."

The FCC "should not undermine innovation by adopting unproven sharing frameworks for these bands," CTIA said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday as it urged the agency to reject fixed satellite service provider arguments that their operations should have co-primary status with terrestrial service in the 28 GHz band. The FCC's "long-standing, highly successful principles of exclusive spectrum use and flexibility" give the certainty needed for investment these bands, CTIA said. And it described calls for co-primary status "regulatory experiments" that could lead to uncertainty that hampers spectrum use.