CTIA Tells FCC to Test ATG Technology
CTIA weighed in on the pending FCC air-to-ground (ATG) order, advising caution to protect incumbents in adjacent bands as it reforms the rules for the 849- 851/894-896 MHz bands, and asking for FCC testing. The CTIA filing adds another significant voice asking the FCC to proceed cautiously on ATG. Meanwhile, Nextel highlighted its interference concerns with considerably more detail in a filing on the item.
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Chmn. Powell started to circulate the ATG order Tues. for a vote at the Nov. agenda meeting, though it could still get pulled. CTIA specifically called for FCC testing to determine the risk of interference. Sources said the FCC hadn’t indicated it would conduct any ATG testing before a vote on an order.
The ATG order is the most contentious wireless item slated for the Nov. agenda meeting. An FCC source said the Wireless Bureau is still briefing the wireless advisers on the order. Several will be out next week at the CTIA meeting in San Francisco, which will take time away from work on the order. Some Commissioners will also be on travel next week. Powell and his staff are still hoping for a vote, the source said.
“There’s a growing sentiment that the FCC needs to move very cautiously on this because so much is at stake,” said an attorney actively involved in the proceeding. “The 8th floor wireless advisers are starting to look closely at the order and its implications. It may be a week or 2 before we get a reading” on whether the item will get a vote in Nov.
CTIA said satellite mobile radio (SMR) operations, public safety and private wireless users of the spectrum were at risk. “While it appears that recent discussions have focused primarily on the potential for interference within the air-ground band, the record is extremely limited with respect to the potential for adjacent band interference,” CTIA said: “This lack of record is a cause for concern, as the Commission considers several very different proposals for use of the band.”
Nextel said wireless ATG (WATG) presents risks to the cellular A & B bands, SMR in the 800 and 900 MHz bands and naval radar operations. Nextel took particular aim at Verizon’s AirFone, one of the leading players on ATG. “Proposals to reconfigure the ATG block, such as that of Verizon, are not ‘modest modifications’ as Verizon has claimed,” Nextel said. “While some pleadings address the technical viability of the WATG proposals with the potential for intra-band interference among competing WATG providers, no inter-band interference analysis or testing exists for any of the numerous WATG band options.” Nextel said of the AirFone plan: “Verizon’s proposal to grab the entire ATG band for itself without testing or competitive bidding is self-serving and anticompetitive.”
Nextel called for “extensive” testing of interference from uplink and downlink ATG bands. It argued that the proposals so far are mostly laid out in “loosely drafted ex parte presentations” that have “largely evaded public scrutiny” and continue to change. The carrier said unknown variables include the number of operators, number of towers and balloons number, types of duplexing and polarization used, permissible altitude of operations, cell sizes and expansion potential.
CTIA said the FCC must consider all interference issues. “While it appears that recent discussions have focused primarily on the potential for interference within the Air-Ground band, the record is extremely limited with respect to the potential for adjacent band interference,” the group said. “This lack of record is a cause for concern, as the Commission considers several very different proposals for use of the band.”
Meanwhile, in another ATG development, AirCell presented the Commission a revised 2-license plan developed with Boeing.