FCC Asked to Allocate 23 GHz Spectrum for Wireless Backhaul
The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) asked the FCC to issue a rulemaking that would make two channel pairs available to fixed wireless users in the 23 GHz band. The group noted in its petition for rulemaking the FCC would only be implementing a recommendation of NTIA. FWCC said since the proposal “will not disadvantage any party” the FCC should bypass seeking comments on its petition and go directly to release of a notice of proposed rulemaking on its own motion.
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“It’s the rare rulemaking that would not disadvantage anyone,” Mitchell Lazarus, attorney for the FWCC, told us Friday. “It makes available greatly needed frequencies for the fixed service and there’s no downside to any other spectrum user.” Lazarus said the spectrum is badly needed for backhaul. “Every bit of data that lands on somebody’s handset first has to backhaul the tower,” he said. “If you double, triple, quadruple the total capacity of the handsets out there… then you need to proportionately increase the amount of backhaul capacity.”
“The 23 GHz band is an important part of the fixed service mix,” the group said in its filing. “The 4, 6, 10, 11, and 23 GHz bands, and the remaining fixed service allocation at 18 GHz -- are subject to serious limitations.”
FWCC said satellite earth stations in the 4 and 6 GHz bands “block many fixed service coordination efforts.” Coordination in the 4 GHz band is “all but impossible nationwide, due to proliferation of registered receive-only satellite dishes,” the group said. “Similarly, earth station congestion has made the 6 GHz band largely unavailable on and near major population centers, where the need for fixed service communications is the greatest.” The other bands offer similar challenges, FWCC said.
The propagation characteristics of 23 GHz, on the other hand, make it suitable for wireless backhaul delivered over short distances, FWCC said. “The growing sophistication of end-user wireless devices and services -- from cellphones to [advanced wireless services spectrum] and beyond; from voice and then music to real-time video -- trigger corresponding increases in demand for backhaul capacity,” the group said. “The 23 GHz band… is vital to filling this need.”