The time could be ripe for the FCC to take on receiver standards, an issue that has been before the agency for 20 years, Commissioner Nathan Simington told a Silicon Flatirons virtual conference Friday. Others said developing standards is tough for regulators because of how quickly technology evolves.
Google asked for an emergency waiver of its commitment to be an environmental sensing capability administrator in the citizens broadband radio service, after its monitoring systems went down during Hurricane Ida. The sensor sites affected are in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, said a filing posted Tuesday, in docket 15-319. CommScope and Federated Wireless sought similar waivers last week.
Launching automated frequency control (AFC) in the 6 GHz band will likely be complicated and could take years to roll out, members of the Wireless Innovation Forum’s 6 GHz Committee Steering Group warned FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff. Experiences with the citizens broadband radio service and TV white spaces suggest the process could take three years or longer, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. The process “could also be lengthy if required to wait for the FCC to perform AFC system testing, or select (and possibly accredit) third-party labs,” the filing said. The group asked about ways to streamline testing, whether some steps can be done in parallel and about AFC system operators testing their own systems.
Anterix and Federated Wireless are offering electric utilities a new option for their private networks, combining Anterix’s licensed 900 MHz spectrum with Federated’s shared spectrum service in the citizens broadband radio service band. The offering can provide “the benefits of the wide coverage and dedicated control of licensed 900 MHz combined with the capacity and flexibility of unlicensed or licensed CBRS spectrum,” the companies said Wednesday.
Two wireless ISPs agreed to pay fines for allegedly prohibited communications during the FCC’s citizens broadband radio service auction of priority access licenses. Router12 agreed to implement a compliance plan and pay a $50,000 penalty. Router12 CEO Ryan Malek violated the rules by posting a statement on the WISP Talk Facebook Group page indicating his company didn’t intend to bid, said a Wednesday notice by the Enforcement Bureau: “Another member of the group replied to the post, stating, ‘At this point, you either filed the short-form for CBRS PAL auction and can’t talk about it, or you missed the deadline.’” Nikola Broadband agreed to pay a $30,000 fine and institute a compliance plan. President Robert Zeff sent an email with the subject line “CBRS fiasco” to the WISP Association’s members email group, saying, “[w]e are backing out of the auction,” the bureau said. Stephen Coran, counsel to WISPA replied, “PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY FURTHER MESSAGES TO THIS LIST.”
Dell’Oro Group dialed down a near-term forecast for citizens broadband radio service investments in 5G deployments Tuesday, projecting $500 million to $1 billion in 2020-25. The adjustments “reflect slower than expected year-to-date LTE CBRS base station adoption,” said Vice President Stefan Pongratz: But “activity is on the rise with interesting use cases forming around multiple verticals, adding confidence enterprise and private deployments will comprise a greater share of the overall CBRS market over time.”
5G has a role to play in infrastructure and closing the digital divide, FCC acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said on an Axios webinar Friday, as Congress debates whether wireless will be a major part of infrastructure spending plans (see 2107150046). Much of the discussion has been on extending the reach of fiber networks, Rosenworcel said. “We really need to have robust connections to those towers … to make sure our wireless networks can deliver all that 5G has to offer.” About 50 million Americans are on 5G , Rosenworcel said. She noted the importance of 5G to IoT. Next-generation machine learning and artificial intelligence are “where the real 5G revolution comes,” she said. Rosenworcel said the FCC “made a mistake” last administration putting too much emphasis on high-band spectrum, repeating a criticism she made as a minority commissioner. Millimeter-wave 5G requires “lots of ground-based facilities,” which are “really costly” to deploy, she said. Mid-band is “the sweet spot” and “how we’re going to deploy 5G,” she said. “We’re doing a lot to fix where we were.” The FCC started the C-band auction, the first mid-band auction for 5G, under former Chairman Ajit Pai (see 2012080040). "The last FCC took unprecedented action to advance American leadership in 5G,” Pai emailed now. “A key part of that plan was freeing up spectrum for the commercial marketplace,” he said, noting the citizens broadband radio service and C-band auction. “Notably, today's leadership voted against each and every one of these measures,” he said: “The agency is now going backward on mid-band by putting on ice the 2.5 GHz auction and the 4.9 GHz initiative." Commissioner Brendan Carr "is proud that he voted in favor of freeing up more than six gigahertz of spectrum for licensed 5G services," a spokesperson emailed: “There is work ahead if this Commission is going to match the pace and cadence it hit with mid-band spectrum over the past few years.” Rosenworcel says the 2.5 GHz auction would come following the 3.45 GHz auction. Mid-band means more 5G outside urban centers, she said now. "That future is not quite here yet.” Broadband is becoming “critical infrastructure,” said Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. Governments “should care,” he said. “I have not met a single government that does not worry about how they can build 5G and how fast.” Amon also noted the debate in Congress: “For the first time, you have a cellular technology that can really replace, or augment, fiber deployment,” which will be easier to build in rural areas. Amon predicted most major U.S. cities will have 5G in 2021, and it will cover the “majority of the country” by Dec. 31, 2022. Most Manufacturing Institute members report they hope to use 5G in their plants by year's end, said Executive Director Carolyn Lee: “They also recognize that the speed with which 5G is deployed will really impact their ability to be globally competitive.”
T-Mobile representatives told FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington potential bidders need more data before the 3.45 GHz auction on DOD use of the band. DOD is starting to provide “additional information about its current and future use of the band [but] there is still more information that bidders need in order to most accurately assess the value of the available spectrum,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 19-348. “Not all of that information may be communicated” before July 21, the deadline for short-form applications, the company said. T-Mobile opposed higher power levels in the citizens broadband radio service band, in a letter to the FCC in docket 17-258.
Commissioners OK’d a Further NPRM proposing revised rules for short-range radars in the 60 GHz band 4-0 Tuesday, as expected (see 2107090047). But Commissioner Brendan Carr questioned whether the FCC is moving aggressively enough on opening spectrum for 5G and unlicensed use. The FNPRM explores new rules for the 57-64 GHz portion and asks questions about using the broader 57-71 GHz band.
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a conditional waiver allowing the NFL to continue to operate its coach-to-coach communications system in the citizens broadband radio service band in the “limited circumstance” of an internet outage at stadiums during games. The league must have a “valid and active authorization” from a spectrum access system operator, said Friday's order. The league must use "at least two independent, unaffiliated” ISPs “with separate physical connections at each NFL stadium throughout the season,” it said.