Calls for Sharing Wi-Fi Channel 14 'Half Baked,' WCAI Says

apparently motivated by the belief two wrongs make a right, commented Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) Monday in docket 13-213. WCAI said Globalstar's terrestrial low-power service plans in channel 14 pose a big interference threat to Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, educational broadband service (EBS) and broadband radio service (BRS) spectrum. PK, OTI and WISPA don't try to address the evidence of interference, WCAI said. "Their position, in effect, is that if Globalstar can cause interference, Wi-Fi users should be allowed to, too." WCAI said if the FCC let anyone other than Globalstar use the 2483.5-2495 MHz band, that decision would have to be vacated since that "was neither proposed nor a logical outgrowth of anything that was proposed" in the Globalstar NPRM. Beyond that, WCAI said, the opportunistic access proposal "is, at best, half-baked," since details on how access would work and how it would be controlled to protect EBS and BRS aren't addressed. Any unlicensed use in the band must come after a public notice and opportunity to comment, WCAI said. PK, OTI and WISPA didn't comment Monday. In an ex parte filing Monday, WISPA recapped a meeting with Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel aide Johanna Thomas, saying it opposes the draft Globalstar order on circulation because it seemingly grants the company conditional operating authority without any requirement for testing for adjacent-channel interference. WISPA said that would let Globalstar initially deploy TLPS "in 'safe' areas" and leave the FCC and public with little usable data at the end of the conditional licensing period about interference and degraded broadband service. Some commissioners have voted against the draft order (see 1606030041).