Changes Urged to Draft 37 GHz Rules Set for FCC Vote Next Week
SpaceX urged the FCC to tweak a draft order on the 37 GHz band to make clear that the coordination mechanism proposed for sharing the spectrum is based on the Part 101 rules for the 70/80/90 GHz band. Others also weighed in just ahead of the FCC’s sunshine notice Monday, cutting off further lobbying. Commissioners are to vote on the order Monday (see 2504070054).
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As an operator authorized to use the 37.5-40 GHz downlink band for a next-generation satellite system, “SpaceX has a strong interest in ensuring that the licensing framework for the band is as streamlined, transparent, and efficient as possible,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 24-243. “Adapting the simple third-party registration database from the 70/80/90 GHz band to the Lower 37 GHz band will build upon existing successes and enable more rapid and efficient coordination, sharing, and deployment of broadband for American consumers.”
Public Knowledge and New America’s Open Technology Institute questioned whether the coordination rules are too conservative in a call with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. “The draft takes a time machine back to what we assumed were the bygone days of manual, slow, costly and spectrally-wasteful notice and response coordination under the old Part 101 rules,” the groups said.
Incompas supported the site-based licensing framework and two-phase coordination process proposed in the draft. As the group “previously noted in this proceeding, a similar framework has worked well in the 70/80 GHz band and should be adapted to facilitate coordinated, co-primary sharing between federal and nonfederal fixed and mobile users of the band,” it said.
WISPA representatives raised technical concerns regarding the draft in meetings with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez. Those concerns include permitted power levels as measured in effective isotropic radiated power (see 2504110022).
The FCC has also received feedback on the non-geostationary orbit/geostationary orbit satellite spectrum sharing NPRM (see 2504220006) and the caller ID authentication gap NPRM (see 2504220013) on Monday's meeting agenda.