Commissioners OK Revamped FCC Approach on 4.9 GHz Band 4-0
The FCC released a long-awaited order and Further NPRM Wednesday on the future of the 4.9 GHz band. Commissioners approved the item 4-0 as expected (see 2211090036). Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel circulated an order in October establishing a national band manager, which would govern the leasing process in the band, with an accompanying FNPRM asking for feedback on details of how the leasing process could work (see 2210260064). None of the commissioners attached statements.
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“We establish a comprehensive and coordinated nationwide approach to managing the 4.9 GHz … band while retaining its locally controlled, public safety nature,” the order says: “In doing so, we solidify the band’s status as public safety spectrum, while also allowing secondary, non-public safety use as agreed to by public safety licensees through a new leasing model.”
This framework retains the band’s “existing status as a locally controlled public safety band, but with more rationalized and coordinated public safety operations on a nationwide level,” the order says. The approach will “enable greater public safety use, including for 5G, and allow the Band Manager to work with public safety licensees to rationalize their use and consolidate their operations, potentially freeing up new opportunities for expanded use.”
The band was allocated for public safety use in 2002, but the FCC viewed it as underutilized. There are 3,541 licenses issued in the band, including 137 statewide licenses, 1,145 countywide licenses and 2,259 other licenses, the FCC said. In 2020, under former Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC gave spectrum control to the states, over dissents by Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks.
In 2021, under Rosenworcel, the FCC voted to reverse the earlier order and seek comment in an FNPRM (see 2109300053).
The order says “critical to this vision for the 4.9 GHz band is the addition of a nationwide Band Manager, which will be selected based on its expertise and connections to the public safety community and will coordinate all operations in the band to ensure that any non-public safety use remains fully secondary to, and preemptible by, public safety operations.”
The manager will be selected by a committee representing stakeholders, “in particular the public safety community,” the FCC said, noting this formula has been successful in other bands. The manager will have three primary responsibilities, the order says: “(1) frequency coordination; (2) incentivizing the use of the latest commercially available technologies, including 5G; and (3) facilitating secondary non-public safety use.” The order details all of these responsibilities.
The order allows nonpublic safety use of the band but charges the band manager with authorizing other uses, which must “fully protect and, where necessary, be subject to preemption by, public safety operations.” The approach “will enable the Band Manager to determine where, when, and at what frequencies non-public safety operators can use the 4.9 GHz band without limiting access to the band for public safety purposes,” the order says.
“Based on our review of existing operations, there is potential for widespread use of the 4.9 GHz band by non-public safety operators without impinging on public safety access,” the order argues: “There is no statewide licensee for three states and two U.S. territories, meaning wide swaths of those areas likely host little to no 4.9 GHz band activity. Moreover, even where there is a statewide public safety licensee, it likely is not using the spectrum throughout the state, particularly given the band’s limited propagation characteristics.”
The FNPRM seeks to flesh out the rights and responsibilities of the band manager and how it will operate. The FCC is seeking comment on the implementation of the committee-based selection process and on “oversight of the Band Manager and on other issues related to the implementation of the Band Manager model.” Comments will be due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 60 days after publication.