FCC Advisory Committee Moves Forward on Recommendations Ahead of WRC-27
The FCC's World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee held its third meeting Tuesday as it prepares for the next WRC in 2027, approving early proposals for U.S. positions. The meeting was the first under the current Trump administration and finished in 20 minutes. The committee last met in August (see 2408050034).
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr was unable to attend but plans to speak at an upcoming session, said Tom Sullivan, acting chief of the International Bureau. Carr “definitely understands and values and appreciates all of the work that this advisory committee is going to be doing,” Sullivan said. “We want the U.S. to come out strong, and we recognize that you have a lot of equities at stake.”
Sullivan called on the committee to find consensus to the extent that it can. “We’re going to continue to push you,” he said. “If you feel something is going amiss, I have an open-door policy."
Committee Chair Jayne Stancavage, vice president-policy and regulatory affairs at Intel, said she appreciated how difficult it is to develop preliminary views on many items before the WRC. “We have great expertise and great people, and I appreciate all the time that everybody is spending.” Before the meeting, the FCC posted agenda items that were discussed.
The committee will likely meet again in August, ahead of the next Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) meeting in late September, officials said. CITEL coordinates positions for the Americas region for presentation at the WRC, though how the U.S. will work with the group during the Trump presidency remains unclear (see 2503110054).
Eric Lee, an electronics engineer in the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management, said his agency is working on recommendations for agenda item 1.7, which examines studies on sharing and compatibility and the use of international mobile telecommunications in the 4, 7/8 and 15 GHz bands but hasn't finished yet. “We’ll continue to work on it.”
Lee presented agenda item 1.8, addressing additional spectrum allocations to the radiolocation service (RLS) on a primary basis in 231.5-275 GHz and possible new identifications for RLS in 275-700 GHz for millimetric and sub-millimetric wave imaging systems. The proposed U.S. position calls for further studies.
Informal Working Group-1, on maritime, aeronautical and radar services, is making recommendations on the RLS item consistent with what NTIA suggests, said the group's chair, Kim Kolb, a Boeing regulatory and spectrum management engineer.
Everyone is taking a “wait-and-see” position on 1.8, Kolb said. While there's a lot of curiosity, "nobody is … really anxious about the agenda item at all and looking forward to seeing what work does appear at the ITU,” he said. The committee approved the recommendations.
It also approved two agenda items from IWG-3, which oversees fixed-satellite service and regulatory issues. Chair Alex Epshteyn, manager-international regulatory affairs and spectrum for Amazon’s Project Kuiper, presented the items.
IWG-3 updated an earlier preliminary position on agenda item 1.5, which proposes to limit the unauthorized operations of non-geostationary-satellite orbit (NGSO) earth stations in the fixed satellite and mobile satellite services (MSS). Epshteyn said the U.S. position was updated to make clear that the U.S. supports studies, while urging caution on new regulations.
Epshteyn's group also proposed and got approval for a preliminary position on agenda item 1.6, addressing access to the Q and V bands (see 2402080016). Here, too, the U.S. supports studies but not regulatory action at this time, he said. The WRC “should proceed carefully in the establishment of any new or additional technical or regulatory regimes.”
In addition, the advisory committee approved a preliminary U.S. position on agenda item 1.12, which addresses low-data-rate NGSO MSS systems. Discussion of the item was “quite contentious,” said HWG’s Damon Ladson, chair of IWG-4 on the mobile satellite and space science services. “What we arrived at” was that the U.S. would support studies on putting low-data-rate MSS in four bands, he said: 1427-1432, 1645.5-1646.5, 1880-1920 and 2010-2025 MHz.