WISPs Hope for Action Soon on Standard Power Rules for 5.9 GHz Band
The FCC appears close to releasing a Further NPRM on authorizing fixed-wireless and Wi-Fi outdoors, at standard power levels, in the 5.9 GHz band, industry officials said. More than 200 wireless ISPs and others have received FCC permission to use the band since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic under grants of special temporary authority (STA), but the Wireless ISP Association pressed the FCC to act on final rules.
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The FCC approved the first STAs for WISPs in 2020, under former Chairman Ajit Pai, before a 5-0 vote in November 2020 segmenting the band. That order allocated 45 MHz to unlicensed use and 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technologies. The FCC is also reportedly poised to act on C-V2X waivers, pending action by NTIA (see 2302020031). NTIA is expected to scope the FNPRM, with an eye on protecting DOD sites, industry officials said.
“WISPA hopes the FCC is ready to move forward on its 5.9 GHZ rulemaking, which would mean companies will soon be able to put it into service in their networks,” Louis Peraertz, WISPA vice president-policy, told us. “The FCC has done a lot of great work on this band, and has resisted a lot of pressure to go back to the status quo -- fallow, unused spectrum, essentially warehoused by the auto industry,” he said. The FCC declined comment Friday.
More than two years after the FCC adopted an order expanding the unlicensed band to “enable high-capacity Wi-Fi for rural and tribal broadband, wireless ISPs continue to operate under experimental licenses granted in response to the pandemic,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. The spectrum is “essentially empty,” he said. “Consumers could benefit far more from final rules that allow for general outdoor use of Wi-Fi at standard power,” he said.
In the wake of a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit decision upholding segmentation of the band (see 2208120035), “making the most of the unlicensed portion of the band is a logical step” and the FCC should make the band available “for as many different types of devices as possible,” said ITIF Director-Broadband and Spectrum Policy Joe Kane. Working with NTIA is critical, he said: “The commission should seriously consider DOD concerns but also exercise its own expert judgment on how to mitigate potential concerns while preserving the value of the band.”
Cooley’s Robert McDowell said work on the band could be the beginning of an era of improved relations among the FCC, the DOD and NTIA. “A positive and constructive and truly 'whole of government' approach is badly needed at this point in the trajectory of our wireless ecosystem,” McDowell emailed.
Other groups endorsed moving to permanent authorizations for full-power outdoor use. “The Commission’s actions early in the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the importance of outdoor … operations,” NCTA said in 2021 comments on an earlier FNPRM. “Short-term relief through STAs is not appropriate as a permanent solution, and carries with it substantial uncertainty that will erect barriers to manufacturer investments and upgrades needed to bring the band into full use,” NCTA said in docket 19-138.
“Allowing outdoor deployments at standard power would ensure the full realization of the potential of the 45 megahertz available in this band as a means of bridging connectivity gaps, particularly in rural, Tribal, and other hard-to-serve areas where wireless internet service providers and other local providers need more unlicensed capacity,” said New America's Open Technology Institute and Public Knowledge.