The FCC must “move cautiously” as it creates...
The FCC must “move cautiously” as it creates service rules for unlicensed use in the 600 MHz duplex gap because of the potentially “complicated and challenging” interference issues that will come up as part of that proceeding, said AT&T Vice…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
President-Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh in a blog post Wednesday. AT&T doesn’t share the FCC’s “confidence that unlicensed devices in the duplex gap in the configuration and at the power levels identified in the order can operate without creating interference to the adjacent licensed allocations,” Marsh said (http://bit.ly/1pkLH2c). FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a draft order and Further NPRM last week on interservice interference after the incentive auction (CD Sept 11 p4). Filings from Broadcom and Qualcomm provide disparate analyses of unlicensed devices’ ability to operate without interference in the duplex gap, an early indication of the technical challenges that lay ahead, Marsh said. Caution is “essential,” she said. “If interfering services are ultimately permitted in the duplex gap, the adjacent licensed blocks (and their associated paired channels) will not be fungible. They will instead be impaired licenses.” Some license impairments may be unavoidable, especially in border areas, but the FCC should try to avoid interference when possible because introducing it “where it need not exist would be a significant step in the wrong direction,” Marsh said.