Pai Seeks April 23 Vote on Wi-Fi in 6 GHz, 5G Fund

Also as expected, Pai said he will seek a vote at the meeting on a 5G Fund for Rural America (see 2003310067). Updated orbital debris rules for satellite operators and the possibility of expanding video description requirements to other markets also will be on the agenda (see 2004010063).

In a departure from the NPRM, Pai will propose making all 1,200 megahertz available for low-power indoor use, without automated frequency control. The FCC is expected to regulate indoor use on a power-spectral density (PSD) basis, a departure from past policy, minimalizing the potential for high-power overlapping uses with fixed service licensees, industry officials said.

The order will stress use of the band by wide channels, since power levels will be much lower than is allowed in other Wi-Fi spectrum, officials said. Pai is likely to propose allowing low-power indoor operations across the entire band at an 5 dBm/MHz radiated PSD, lower than the 8 dBm/MHz sought by cable (see 2003260049), officials said. The higher level would allow gigabyte access anywhere on a single floor, but likely require a router for other floors. One official said 8 dBm/MHz would mean throughput of about 650 Mbps, compared with 500 at 5 dBm/MHz.

The draft authorizes “standard-power in 850-megahertz of the band and indoor low-power operations over the full 1,200-megahertz,” said a release. The Further NPRM “proposes to permit very low-power devices to operate across the 6 GHz band, to support high data rate applications including high-performance, wearable, augmented-reality and virtual-reality devices.” The FCC didn’t ask about that class of devices in the original NPRM (see 1810230038) approved 4-0 in October 2018.

“I can’t wait to see, and use, the new services and ideas brought forward because of our work here,” said Commissioner Mike O’Rielly: “Conclusion of the further notice, which must be done this year, should provide further improvements and functionality.”

Reaction

It's "an elegant way to enable the next generation of broadband and close the digital divide," while "protecting incumbent operations," Chris Szymanski, Broadcom director-government affairs, told us. This will “supercharge” unlicensed, he said. “We see the U.S. leading on Wi-Fi, on unlicensed issues, that are going to be critical for enabling 5G.”

Andrew Long of the Free State Foundation said the FCC should consider licensing part of the swath. “Licensed mid-band spectrum is not just an essential component of our national 5G strategy, it also is in very short supply,” Long told us. The FCC “deserves credit for making significant progress” with two mid-band auctions scheduled, “but by all accounts more is needed,” he said.

“By creating incentives for Wi-Fi users to spread their energy over extremely wide channels, the FCC’s new approach both greatly increases the capacity of Wi-Fi indoors, which benefits consumers, and it better protects incumbent users, particularly point-to-point links used by utilities,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. The plan “puts the U.S. far ahead of Europe, which is also poised to open the lower half of 6 GHz for Wi-Fi, but only indoors and at less useful power levels,” he said.

“Not long ago, being effectively confined to our homes for the foreseeable future would have been difficult to imagine,” Pai blogged: “Now try to imagine what this new era of social distancing would look like without Wi-Fi.” He's "consistently said that @FCC's decision on 6 GHz band would be driven not by politics or press releases, but by physics,” Pai tweeted. “My plan reflects that: it's calibrated to protect incumbent users from harmful interference & allow #WiFi6 to thrive.”

“We urge the commission to make the most of this unique opportunity to empower Wi-Fi users by authorizing low power indoor use at 8 dBm/MHz, which CableLabs’ studies have shown will not cause harmful interference to incumbent licensees, and will fully enable the wide Wi-Fi channels that make this band so unique,” a CableLabs spokesperson emailed.

"The spectrum will allow small rural innovators such as WISPs to bring exciting new broadband services to more rural Americans,” the Wireless ISP Association said: “When combined with other spectrum such as mmWave, fixed 5G can be brought out to the hinterlands.”

“The runaway success of Wi-Fi in the last couple decades represents the power of unlicensed spectrum, open standards and unfettered innovation,” said Keerti Melkote, president-Intelligent Edge for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “With millions of Americans relying on broadband networks to remain connected and productive while practicing social distancing, the need for Wi-Fi sharing in 6 GHz has never been more clear,” Charter Communications said. “Ensuring necessary unlicensed spectrum access is critical for Wi-Fi,” the Wi-Fi Alliance said.

The Utilities Technology Council will review the draft, emailed Senior Vice President-Government and External Affairs Sharla Artz: UTC will “continue to provide the FCC with technical detail demonstrating the very real interference potential from unlicensed use across all parts of the band and the need for thoroughly tested automated frequency coordination to protect incumbent users.” Coordination for standard-power access points isn’t enough, she said.

5G

Pai highlighted the USF 5G NPRM.

It will “target rural areas that would not see timely deployment of 5G service absent support and are not likely to be covered by the T-Mobile transaction commitments,” he said. That takeover of Sprint was completed earlier Wednesday, with the companies citing COVID-19. See our earlier bulletin about the completion of the deal here. Our earlier article about the companies' plans is here. (Communications Daily is putting coronavirus-related news in front of its pay wall.)

“As the FCC's Mobility Fund mapping debacle made clear, we need to work harder and be smarter when it comes to getting wireless connectivity to all areas,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a statement: “We are not there yet. Instead of moving fast with precise data, the FCC presents a false choice between speed or accuracy. It ignores the fact we can do two things at once -- we can work with speed to get more connectivity more places and honor our new mapping obligations under the law at the same time.”

The FCC said the 5G funding NPRM explores two approaches. One is an auction for phase I next year “defining eligible areas based on current data sources that identify areas as particularly rural and thus in the greatest need of universal service support.” The FCC would look at delaying phase I “until at least 2023, after collecting and processing improved mobile broadband coverage data through the Commission’s new Digital Opportunity Data Collection.”