Groups Opposed to FCC's 4.9 GHz Order Counter Public Safety Spectrum Alliance Arguments
Groups opposing an FCC order giving the FirstNet Authority control of the 4.9 GHz band through a nationwide license (see 2410220027) Monday slammed Public Safety Spectrum Alliance (PSSA) and Public Safety Broadband Technology Association (PSBTA) challenges of part of the order. The Coalition for Emergency Response and Critical Infrastructure (CERCI) and other groups filed a brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is scheduled to hear the case Nov. 24. The FCC and DOJ, meanwhile, defended the order.
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“Without establishing standing to do so,” the PSSA and PSBTA “challenge two minor aspects of an order … that otherwise adopted essentially everything PSSA requested in the rulemaking process,” said the CERCI-led filing in docket 24-1363.
The FCC order “fails to account for incumbents’ reliance interests and the resulting consequences for public safety; fails to adequately consider data regarding incumbent usage that the Order requires be collected; and fails to address serious concerns about FirstNet,” the brief said. “PSSA argues that the Commission should have taken even more extreme action than it did, but the Commission adequately explained why it declined to go as far as PSSA wanted.”
The PSSA “incorrectly argues” that the commission “failed to address its proposal to replace incumbents’ geographic licenses with site-based licenses,” the brief said. The commission “did largely direct the replacement of incumbents’ prior geographic licenses with site-based license.” PSSA also “incorrectly” argues that FCC “should have required incumbent licensees to immediately surrender all unused spectrum,” the filing said. The regulator “explained that it chose to defer consideration of surrender until it reviewed the data incumbents submit about their usage.”
CERCI represents Verizon, T-Mobile and other interests opposed to FirstNet's, and thus AT&T's, control of the band. Others on the filing are groups representing sheriffs and the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District.
“After over a decade of failed efforts to spur usage, the Commission adopted a new regulatory framework to address the coordination problem that has been hindering utilization of the 4.9 GHz band,” the government said in asking that the order not be overturned. The brief noted that at the time the order was approved there were only 3,676 licensees in the band.
The FCC "has broad authority to oversee wire and radio communications in the United States," the government said. "This includes the power to manage non-federal spectrum in the public interest. The agency relied on this sweeping authority -- and its extensive technical expertise -- to address a decades-long problem: the underutilization of the 4.9 GHz band."
The regulatory framework adopted in the order “will allow for a comprehensive, considered solution to the persistent problem of underutilization of the 4.9 GHz band for public safety purposes,” the government said. “By making a single Band Manager responsible for frequency coordination in the band, and also for facilitating FirstNet’s access to unassigned spectrum, the Commission expects to see development and deployment of ‘new technologies’ for the public safety community, including advanced ‘5G’ wireless applications."