The new Coalition for Coordinated Sharing filed a petition for rulemaking at the FCC Tuesday, asking the agency to develop rules to open the 10-10.5 GHz band for point-to-point use on a shared basis. “It is becoming increasingly difficult to find greenfield spectrum below the 12 GHz spectrum band to connect tower sites, enterprises and devices,” the group said in a news release: “Sharing spectrum in the 10 GHz band represents the most viable means to solve congestion and meet consumer demand for more robust broadband and IoT services with incumbents.” The coalition's members are the Wireless ISP Association, Cambium Networks, the Open Technology Institute at New America and Public Knowledge. An official with the coalition told us it builds on a 2013 proposal by Mimosa asking that the band be set aside for outdoor and long-distance backhaul links at the power levels allowed under Part 90, subpart Z, of commission rules. The commission took comment in 2014 (see 1404150034). CTIA previously supported use of the 10 GHz band for licensed use (see 2011030051). Bipartisan lawmakers in the House and Senate urged an exam of the band in 2015 (see 1503030029). The coalition said sharing would be easier than the sharing in the citizens broadband radio service band, similar to the frequency coordination being developed for the 6 GHz band. “Over the last several years, the Commission has made thousands of megahertz of spectrum available for last-mile service,” the group said. “While those allocations have created significant public benefits, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need for more point-to-point spectrum to relieve congestion in other bands and help meet the increased demand for fixed broadband service,” it said: “This is particularly true in rural areas and for other applications where devices are not proximate to available or affordable fiber.” The spectrum is currently occupied by DOD and possibly other federal incumbents in many areas, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “Using a geographic coordination system, this underutilized band could also accommodate shared use with broadband providers in many rural, tribal and other underserved areas,” he said.
The FCC is giving fixed satellite service earth station operators in the 3.6-3.7 GHz band until Oct. 17 to register with the agency. The FCC noted the registration was required for grandfathered stations as part of its work on the citizens broadband radio service band. The deadline for this year was Dec. 1, 2021. “We recognize that this is a relatively new process and so, to avoid any unnecessary service interruptions, we are providing a one-time grace period for any FSS earth station licensee that failed to submit its 2022 annual registration,” said a Thursday notice: After Oct. 17 “registrations that have not been completed for 2022 may be deactivated or deleted, and the site will no longer merit protection by the Spectrum Access System administrators.”
The FCC’s reconstituted Technology Advisory Council heard briefings on the work so far of its working groups, all focused on 6G, at its third meeting Thursday. All four WGs presented at some length on the status of their reports. One early finding is that artificial intelligence doesn't really exist and won't for many years.
The FCC Wireless Bureau approved a one-year waiver extension of rules for the citizens broadband radio service allowing the NFL to continue operating a coach-to-coach communications system in the event of a localized internet outage in stadiums during games (see 2207120055). The bureau gave the NFL only part of what it sought. “While we find that a grant of a conditional waiver would be consistent with the underlying purpose of the rule and serve the public interest, we decline to grant the waiver for the requested three-year period,” said a Wednesday order in docket 21-111: “We will instead restrict it to a period of one NFL season as Petitioner has not demonstrated a need for a longer waiver period.”
State broadband offices are adapting to much larger sums of cash than they had in years past, due to recent federal laws, said a Tennessee official at a virtual Broadband Breakfast event Wednesday. Building broadband “to and through” anchor institutions can sometimes be the best option to reach rural communities, said New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) and the Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition in a Wednesday report.
The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology certified Sony Thursday for a five-year term as a spectrum access system administrator in the citizens broadband radio service band in American Samoa. Sony was previously approved to operate in the contiguous U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam, the FCC said. The FCC also approved new environmental sensing capability sensor deployment and coverage plans for Guam, submitted by Federated Wireless.
The FCC granted 2,431additional priority access licenses in the citizens broadband radio service band, the first awarded since December. The grants follow adoption of “consent decrees and subsequent amendments made by the Applicants consistent with those consent decrees” addressing concerns raised by the commission (see 2207150034), said a Tuesday order by the Wireless Bureau. The licenses were awarded to Cable One, NorthWestern, SAL Spectrum, Shenandoah and UScellular.
Commenters raised concerns on a proposal by the University of Utah for an FCC waiver of citizens broadband radio service rules for its POWDER (Platform for Open Wireless Data-driven Experimental Research) platform, used for wireless research. Comments were due Monday in docket 22-257. The university asked for a waiver to use software-defined radio equipment to interact with the spectrum access system operator “within the POWDER Platform Innovation Zone” and for other exceptions to rules for the band. The university said it uses the platform as a “living laboratory that allows research in a real-world, spectrum realistic environment.”
The NFL asked the FCC to approve its proposed waiver extension of rules for the citizens broadband radio service allowing the league to continue operating a coach-to-coach communications systems in the event of a localized internet outage in stadiums during games. The league noted only NCTA filed comments and supported the extension (see 2207120055). “Before seeking an extension … the NFL engineering team conducted extensive due diligence to see if an alternative approach was available, but after considering many options and consulting with both vendors and staff, the League concluded that a waiver was necessary for these very limited circumstances since a technology ‘work around’ was not available,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 21-111.
The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology approved Amdocs, Federated Wireless, Google, Key Bridge and Sony as spectrum access system (SAS) administrators to support spectrum manager leasing for priority access licenses in the citizens broadband radio service band, in a Tuesday order. All have been approved as SAS administrators but needed separate clearance to support PAL leasing, the order said.