The FCC should override objections from Globalstar and...

band for feeder links starting in the 1990s, but now it’s little used. “Today Globalstar is the only MSS operator using the band,” NCTA said. “Every other company has gone bankrupt or uses different frequencies. And rather than serving the millions of customers that the FCC predicted many years ago, Globalstar uses the vast 100 MHz U-NII-1 band -- over 1.5x more spectrum than the entire core 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band -- for four U.S. feeder link stations serving fewer than 85,000 duplex customers worldwide, only a subset of which are U.S.-based.” As long as incumbents are protected, use of the band for Wi-Fi would have many benefits, NCTA said: “It would support expansion of consumer broadband, advance the Commission’s connected schools program, empower additional mobile health systems, and allow technological innovation harnessing the new Gigabit Wi-Fi standard.” Globalstar fired back. “Globalstar appreciates NCTA’s commitment to the ‘fundamental principle that unlicensed devices must not cause harmful interference to Globalstar,'” Globalstar General Counsel Barbee Ponder said in an email. “Unfortunately, it is impossible for NCTA or the FCC to ensure that Globalstar’s mobile satellite services will not suffer harmful interference if the unlimited, potentially ubiquitous outdoor deployment of U-NII-1 access points is permitted. In this scenario, the number of outdoor devices ultimately deployed by ALL providers of Wi-Fi services is unknown and could even far exceed current projections. In its most recent study, NCTA ignores this reality and apparently presumes that cable companies will have a de facto monopoly on the use of free unlicensed spectrum in the U-NII-1 band.”