Internet Delivery of NOAA's GOES Data Questioned
Reliability of an online content delivery network (CDN) to replace GOES rebroadcast (GRB) weather data from NOAA is being questioned by some in the weather and satellite community as the FCC seeks comment on proposed allocation and service rules for the 1675-1680 MHz band. Weather interests also raised red flags about possible interference issues (see 1906210056).
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Boeing said internet distribution of GOES data can be hampered by inconsistent speeds and reliability during major weather events due to outages and excessive use, in docket 19-116 comments posted Monday. It said repurposing of the band, as sought by Ligado, needs to be considered alongside Ligado's broader proposal for terrestrial wireless use of 40 MHz of spectrum. And it said if 1675-1680 MHz is available for wireless services, licensees must be required to cooperate with experimental testing in the frequencies.
Hundreds of organizations' earth stations "will face significant adjacent band interference" from terrestrial wireless use of the band, which could end or at least hurt GRB downlinks, AccuWeather said. It said the burden of protection zones or other steps like monitoring and shielding should be on new entrants seeking to share the band. The company said even a private internet network or direct fiber could be unstable in a natural disaster. It said there are regular latency problems with terrestrial networks, and the CDN proposal carries unanswered questions like what kind of support would be provided by a spectrum auction winner and for how long.
Many urged delaying action until after NOAA completes a study addressing many questions, expected in 2020. Allocation of the 1675-1680 band MHz for terrestrial use is premature and should be paused until the study is done, and put out for public notice and comment, Lockheed Martin said. It supports the FCC's proposal of an alternative to the GOES variable and GRB broadcasts from NOAA satellites, and waiting for NOAA to finish its study will ensure no loss of critical capabilities to end users of that NOAA data.
Iridium called Ligado "a speculator [and] not part of the 5G future," since its spectrum isn't harmonized internationally for terrestrial use. It said Ligado's spectrum holdings allow only narrow channel widths that wouldn't work well for 5G. It said a nationwide auction for 1675-1680 MHz could mean Ligado faces no competing bidders, but assigning the spectrum by other means would deprive the public of auction revenue. It said Ligado "doing virtually nothing" for years with its 1670-1675 MHz spectrum is an indication of what it likely would do with 1675-1680 MHz.
Citing increasing needs of non-federal spectrum to meet demand, CTIA backs co-primary allocation for non-federal fixed and mobile flexible-use wireless service in the band. SNR Wireless said reallocation "would be counterproductive" unless the FCC can be sure its technical and service rules protect AWS-3 licensees in the 1986-1710 MHz band. It said 1.6 GHz band licensees should be required to coordinate with federal operators in the 1675-1695 MHz band to set up an interference budget and monitoring process for AWS-3 operators and that those 1.6 GHz licensees should also bear the costs of any additional compliance or monitoring obligations.