4.9 GHz, CII 4-0 Votes Expected Thursday
A draft order and Further NPRM on the future of the 4.9 GHz band is expected to be OK’d 4-0 by FCC commissioners Thursday, despite some questions about who may be eligible to share. A draft NPRM on how networks could be made more resilient during disasters also is expected to be approved unanimously and hasn’t been controversial so far, with industry waiting to file comments rather than seeking changes to the notice.
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The 4.9 GHz rethink got off to a rocky start. Commissioner Brendan Carr dissented when the FCC stayed an order from last year. But he made clear two weeks ago (see 2109150055) he's willing to look at other options for the spectrum and is pleased acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel got 4.9 “on the board again in a relatively quick fashion.”
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council is “pleased that the FCC is taking another look at this issue,” NPSTC Chairman Ralph Haller told us: “There is no question that the previous decision was detrimental to public safety. Hopefully the FCC will put the interests of public safety first in its fresh look.”
The handful of recent ex parte filings on 4.9 GHz, in docket 07-100, focus on who should be eligible to share the band with public safety. NPSTC clarified in August it supports use by utilities and other critical industries infrastructure (CII) providers. The Enterprise Wireless Alliance said “CII usage on a managed basis would be more compatible with public safety at 4.9 GHz than opening the band to commercial wireless and general public use.”
Use “should not be limited to CII, but should be available to any user that desires access ... and can meet the Commission’s interference protection and device certification requirements,” the Wireless ISP Association said. WISPA urged changing the draft to “tentatively conclude” that other use “would be consistent with the public interest.” The group is “hopeful” the agency will make the change, a spokesperson emailed.
“We don’t anticipate substantive further changes at the moment, and the issues, of which there are many, will be addressed as part of the rulemaking process,” said EWA President Mark Crosby.
The disaster preparedness NPRM asks about potential improvements (see 2109090068) to the voluntary wireless network resiliency cooperative framework, launched five years ago. It asks about “ways to enhance the information available” to the commission through the network outage reporting system and disaster information reporting system “to improve situational awareness.” It seeks ways to make telecom facilities more resilient during power outages.
Few have lobbied on the draft. Industry and FCC officials said it's likely to be OK'd with few changes.
NCTA and USTelecom representatives spoke with aides to the four commissioners, said a filing in docket 21-346. Members “devote a significant amount of time and resources to improving the resiliency of their networks and mitigating the consequences of natural disasters,” the groups said: “Responding to these disaster situations presents a number of complex issues and generally does not lend itself to one-size-fits-all regulatory mandates.” They stressed the importance of keeping outage data confidential. Neither group commented Wednesday.
In a meeting with Commissioner Nathan Simington, Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said the framework should be expanded to cover all telecom and information services. “We should encourage providers to share resources immediately before, during, and after the crisis,” PK said. “The existing framework assumes that mutual roaming and mutual aid are a last resort, to be used only when all other efforts by an individual network have failed and only to the extent it does not inconvenience the carriers providing aid.” The FCC should “ensure that the burden and contributions are equitably distributed, and find ways to create incentives for providers to share resources,” the group said.
The FCC now asks questions on a cross-sector working group with the utilities, based on the USTelecom/NCTA filing, officials said. The draft also now includes questions based on a Broadband Deployment Advisory Committee 2020 report on disaster response and recovery (see 2010290057).