Verizon Wireless Wants 700 MHz Power-Limit Rules Changed
As the FCC wrestles with the 700 MHz band service and auction rules, Verizon Wireless wants the agency to revise the rules it adopted in April (CD April 25 Special Bulletin p1). Verizon Wireless is asking the Commission to modify its power-limit rules for the 700 MHz band to impose a single set of rules on the upper and lower bands, it said in a petition for reconsideration and clarification. Verizon Wireless has met in recent weeks with FCC staff on the issue, according to ex partes filed. A rewrite would “ensure that both bands are equally able to accommodate a variety of technologies, including emerging broadband technologies that spread power over a large spectral bandwidth,” Verizon Wireless said.
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Under the new rules, power spectral density (PSD) is gauged per megahertz. “The use of a PSD limit will promote the deployment of broadband technologies without the risk of harmful interference while higher power limits in rural areas will promote a wider deployment of these broadband technologies across the country,” Verizon Wireless said. The problem is that “licensees in the upper 700 MHz band choosing to deploy broadband technologies, would be held to a more rigorous interference standard than licenses choosing to deploy narrowband technologies,” it said. The narrowband licensee could operate 4 channels within the 5 MHz, each at 1000 effective radiated power (ERP) without hitting the 5,000 ERP upper-band limit. The broadband licensee, which would need the entire 5 MHz for one channel, could operate only at 1000 ERP.
The rules seek to prevent harmful interference to public safety, the FCC said. But the FCC “provided no evidence that imposing a more stringent requirement on broadband operations, as opposed to narrowband operations is necessary to avoid harmful interference,” said Verizon Wireless, claiming the opposite to be true. A licensee employing 5 separate 1 MHz channels at a 1000 ERP power limit “would create considerably greater potential for interference” than a carrier with a single 5 MHz channel operating at 2000 ERP,” the company said.
Carriers wishing to deploy down-tilt antennas, used in the wireless industry, would face severe limits under the power rules, Verizon Wireless said, keeping the licensee “from making most efficient use of its assigned spectrum.”
Verizon Wireless objected to FCC coordination and notification requirements, calling them “confusing, burdensome, and inconsistent with technology neutrality.” The FCC adopted higher power limits for rural areas. The Commission “shouldn’t undermine its technology neutrality and regulatory parity policies by imposing a notification requirement that treats rural and non-rural areas differently even if they operate at the same power levels,” said Verizon Wireless.