FCC Set to Take Up Proposal on Spectrum Above 95 GHz at December Meeting
The FCC is expected to consider an NPRM on the future of spectrum above 95 GHz as early as the Dec. 14 commissioners’ meeting, industry officials said. The date could slip until January, but a draft is almost ready, they said. The FCC asked preliminary questions about the very-high frequency spectrum as part of the July 2016 spectrum frontiers order and Further NPRM (see 1607140052).
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The spectrum is considered by some the next frontier above the current spectrum limits. Chairman Ajit Pai cited spectrum above 95 MHz in a March speech (see 1703150020). Office of Engineering and Technology Chief Julius Knapp said in August the FCC was looking closely at these bands (see 1708150060). The agency declined to comment Monday.
Michael Marcus, a proponent of addressing the spectrum above 95 GHz, said if the U.S. doesn’t act, it will be left behind. Europeans and Asians “are busy marching ahead on this,” said the former FCC engineer and current consultant. Marcus noted Battelle filed a petition in 2014 asking the FCC to amend parts 1 and 101 of its rules to open the 102-109.5 GHz band for fixed point-to-point services (see 1403030054). It sends a “chilling message” to anyone who might want to invest in telecom research and development when a company of Battelle’s size “can’t get anything out of the FCC other than the request for comments on a petition,” Marcus said. Battelle didn’t comment.
Amateur radio operators and a few other services already have allocations in the high-frequency spectrum, but largely without service rules, Marcus said. He predicted the FCC won’t change any of the current internationally harmonized allocations: “The issue is there are allocations that have been there, but there are no service rules.”
CTA supported the previous spectrum frontiers proceeding, said Julie Kearney, vice president-regulatory affairs. “We’ll watch the current process carefully and welcome any initiatives to open up more spectrum for licensed and unlicensed use.”
“We want to encourage innovation anywhere in the spectrum,” said Larry Downes, senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy “I’m sure those frequencies are of interest not only to industry and the unlicensed community but to federal users as well. If the FCC is preparing to establish an orderly approach to experimentation and allocation at these frequencies, it’s hard to see why that wouldn’t be a good thing.”
High-band spectrum, “by its very nature,” is mostly best suited for unlicensed use, said Kalpak Gude, president of the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance. “The propagation characteristics of the band make virtually any other approach a mandate to waste the spectrum resource and impose unnecessary governmental control,” Gude said. “The short distance, narrow beamwidths, and line-of-sight capabilities and requirements of this spectrum means that unlicensed operations are the best hands-off approach for the government to take to enable innovation and rapid deployment. The laws of physics will manage the rest.”
“To meet the overall mobile data demand and new use case services, 5G will require low-, mid- and high-band spectrum," said Chris Pearson, president of 5G Americas. The group is "glad to see the FCC working diligently and leading the way to identify additional spectrum for the wireless industry.”
Carriers are always interested in spectrum availability, for licenses and unlicensed use, said Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association. “The FCC should take every opportunity to unleash as much spectrum as possible and ensure all carriers, both large and small, have access to additional spectrum,” Berry said. “The FCC must license spectrum in smaller geographic areas, manageable block sizes and incorporate aggregation limits. Otherwise, new innovators could be frozen out.”
Facebook is among the players that have weighed in, calling in a filing last year signed by ex-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in docket 14-177 for reallocation of spectrum above 95 GHz for unlicensed use.