More Concerns Raised on Wireless Mic Item at FCC Ahead of Thursday Meeting
Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America, is seeking a tweak to the FCC order and further notice on wireless microphones, teed up for Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting. The item has suddenly appeared controversial, heading into the…
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meeting (see 1707060057). Calabrese said the rules, as proposed, could disadvantage TV white spaces (TVWS) devices. “Although the precise rules and process could be a topic for notice and comment, … the FNPRM should tentatively conclude that as a condition prerequisite to reserving (and thereby blocking) a 6 megahertz TVWS channel, all Part 74 licensees must make a showing that there is no other spectrum available to meet their needs at the location and during the hours of their performance,” Calabrese said in a filing in docket 14-165. “Requiring Part 74 microphone operators to use microphone spectrum first -- and, at worst, a TVWS channel as a last resort -- promotes efficient spectrum use and sharing.” Part 74 operators are able to coordinate as many as 16 microphones in a single 6 MHz TV channel, he said: “Since it’s unlikely that many hundreds of microphones will be operating within the same 1 kilometer protection area, the need to use one of the few TVWS channels in a metro market should be rare -- and not left up to licensed microphone operators who never paid for spectrum.” Calabrese met Thursday with Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, and aides to the three FCC commissioners. The Aerospace & Flight Test Radio Coordinating Council, meanwhile, asked the FCC “to remove any ambiguity” in the order about requests for special temporary authority (STA) in the 1435-1525 MHz bands to support video production. The FCC should clarify for entities seeking STAs “the devices they propose to operate … must adhere to the same software controls and other requirements as set forth for regular licenses,” the group said in a filing. “This clarification will remove any doubt whether those integrated controls that the Commission correctly concluded are necessary to protect flight test operations from harmful interference that otherwise could be caused by wireless microphones are equally applicable to wireless microphone STA operations as well.”