Railroads Lead Opposition on Additional 900 MHz Rules Changes
The FCC received pushback to proposals in a January NPRM seeking comment on a voluntary, negotiation-based process to transition 10 MHz in the 900 MHz band to broadband. However, other commenters, led by utilities, urged the FCC to move forward. In 2020, the FCC approved use of 6 GHz of the band for broadband while retaining 4 MHz for narrowband operations (see 2005130057). Comments were due Friday and mostly posted Monday in docket 24-99.
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The Association of American Railroads (AAR) said the 2020 order triggered changes that led to millions of dollars in compliance costs and “significant operational disruptions” for its members. Railroads use a 900 MHz nationwide ribbon license to support rail safety. “The ongoing 3/3 megahertz transition to another segment of the band has been highly burdensome and costly,” the group said: “Understandably, AAR has no plans to transition again.” While the NPRM characterizes the transition as voluntary, “the prospect of a further transition raised in the NPRM has introduced great uncertainty regarding the sustainability of future narrowband use of the band.”
Gogo Business Aviation also expressed concerns. The NPRM proposes a plan that would eliminate the guard band between Gogo’s air-to-ground uplinks and broadband operators using the 896-901 MHz band, the company said. That “creates a risk of out-of-band emissions causing harmful interference to Gogo’s operations, reducing the overall spectral efficiency" of the air-to-ground system "or disrupting it entirely.” Gogo sought such protections as a requirement that 5/5 MHz licensees coordinate with the company before deploying within 5 miles of its ground stations.
Motorola Solutions said revised rules would be premature. “The ongoing transition to a 3/3 megahertz broadband allocation is nascent, with just a handful of markets having deployed the technology.” There are many incumbents in the 900 MHz band, the company said, including business/industrial/land transportation and critical infrastructure systems “that rely on narrowband spectrum to provide critical public safety communications, nuclear power plant security, utility service restoration and maintenance, the development and proliferation of smart grid applications, emergency communications, and more.”
Among commenters that supported the FCC moving forward, the Utilities Technology Council said its members “need higher bandwidth and lower latency communications networks to support increasing smart grid requirements.” Most of the spectrum now available to utilities is narrowband, it said. “There is still a place for narrowband communications systems amongst utilities, but broadband spectrum is increasingly necessary to support smart grid and other emerging utility applications, including security, such as video surveillance.”
The Edison Electric Institute supported revising rules but said the transition must be voluntary. “The proposed expanded 900 MHz segment will support high-bandwidth utility use cases, such as video capability, and expand utility field worker applications,” the institute said. It “will also allow electric companies higher capacity for the continually increasing sensor device deployments and potentially high-density meter deployments.”
Anterix, which is working with utilities on their use of the 900 MHz band, said the 2020 order “triggered remarkable activity with seven utilities deploying 900 MHz broadband networks across 15 states.” The NPRM “is the next step on a path the FCC charted five years ago, allowing the conversion of underused, in some areas entirely unused, narrowband spectrum to support more advanced broadband technology for enterprise users,” the company said. The market-driven transition process used in the 2020 order “has been a marked success with more than 75% of all incumbents relocated from the 3/3 megahertz broadband segment with minimal FCC involvement.”
Noting that it was one of the parties that sought the rulemaking, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance said, “While electric utilities are the first enterprise industry segment to invest in broadband deployments in the 900 MHz Band, others will follow as the capabilities of broadband technology to provide enhanced latency, capacity, reliability, and security become increasingly well-known."
Ericsson also supported the proposed framework, which “strikes a sound balance, enabling expanded broadband deployment while preserving narrowband options for existing incumbents": “This is a critical and timely step to ensure more efficient and intensive spectrum use, mainly as industries such as utilities, enterprise entities, and critical infrastructure sectors increasingly rely on secure and reliable wireless broadband networks.”
Nokia agreed that the proposed rules will protect narrowband incumbents. “Utilities and other business enterprises are modernizing their facilities and undergoing digital transformation,” it said. “This creates an increased demand for more services and applications which drives the capacity demand over existing wireless infrastructure.”