Federated Wireless said improvements in citizens broadband radio service sharing mean CBRS users will see “at least 60% and potentially as much as 80% improvement in spectrum availability” in areas where Navy radars must be protected. Federated has seen “zero incidents of harmful interference to critical DOD operations” as part of its CBRS offerings, said Chief Technology Officer Kurt Schaubach. “We see this new set of CBRS enhancements as a milestone in the maturity of spectrum sharing,” he said. “Through the enhancements Federated Wireless has advanced, the user experience with CBRS spectrum will be on par with licensed spectrum that is many times more costly while still assuring robust shared access for incumbents and commercial users alike,” Federated said.
Developing rules for opening the lower 3 GHz band, a top focus of U.S. carriers (see 2404080063), won’t be easy, Monisha Ghosh, engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame and former FCC chief technologist, said during an RCR Wireless virtual test and management forum Tuesday. Much discussion at the forum centered on the challenges of performance testing in evolving 5G networks.
Samsung Electronics America representatives met with aides to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel about the company’s request for a waiver for a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041). The company refuted concerns raised about the potential interference threat to CBRS (see 2404090058). Samsung was “the first phone manufacturer to offer a phone operating in CBRS in the United States and a leading supplier of CBRS base stations around the country,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 23-93: “Samsung has every incentive to ensure its proposed radio does not intentionally interfere with its and others’ CBRS radios.” The waiver request “has been pending more than 600 days and is ripe for grant,” the company said.
CTIA and its major members agreed that grants of special temporary authority (STA) are the best method of getting “inventory” spectrum into play, in reply comments posted Tuesday in docket 24-72. Others continue to stress the benefits of dynamic sharing and other mechanisms (see 2404090045). The FCC sought comment in March as the agency marked the one-year anniversary of its general auction authority expiring.
NCTA officials and members spoke with aides to all five FCC commissioners about Samsung Electronics America’s request for a waiver for a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see 2309130041). Cable companies objected earlier (see [Ref:2401050052). Technical analysis demonstrates that Samsung’s multiband radio “and others sure to follow based on its theory would increase the median noise in the CBRS band by roughly 11 dB, harming the services existing CBRS users are providing to consumers,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 23-98. Approval of the waiver “would set a troubling precedent by allowing future parties to disregard emissions limits and other protections, undermining the Commission’s ability to manage interference.” Among those represented on the calls were Comcast, Charter Communications and Cox Enterprises.
Commenters disagreed sharply on what mechanisms the FCC should use to make available unassigned licenses in its inventory absent general auction authority. Comments were posted Tuesday in docket 24-72. The FCC sought comment in March on the first anniversary of the expiration of its general auction authority (see 2403070062). Wireless carriers said grants of special temporary authority (STA) are the best alternative. Unlicensed advocates hailed the benefits of dynamic spectrum sharing.
Top DOD officials stressed the continuing military importance of the lower 3 GHz band as DOD and NTIA kick off a study of the band that the national spectrum strategy requires (see 2403120056). DOD and other administration officials during a Monday event at CTIA stressed the importance of developing more sophisticated ways of sharing spectrum. The National Spectrum Consortium also sponsored the event.
DOD on Wednesday released a redacted version of the Emerging Mid-Band Radar Spectrum Sharing Feasibility Assessment (EMBRSS), which DOD and NTIA forwarded to Congress in September (see 2309280087). The report examines military systems located in lower 3 GHz spectrum, with an eye on potential sharing but not on clearing as sought by CTIA and carriers.
Samsung Electronics America and others refuted objections NCTA raised against Samsung's request for an FCC waiver for a 5G base station radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum (see [Ref:2309130041). “Samsung’s proposed 3.5/3.7 GHz multiband radio will have substantially the same radiofrequency profile as a standalone 3.7 GHz radio collocated with a standalone 3.5 GHz radio” with no “practical impact” on CBRS deployments “when compared to the deployment of two standalone radios,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 23-93. Ericsson, Qualcomm and Verizon also signed the filing. NCTA opposition “in the face of measured test data demonstrates this is best understood as a collateral attack on the Commission’s rule limiting the out-of-band emissions from 3.7 GHz base stations into the CBRS band,” they said. The general objection to a current FCC rule should be dismissed as “irrelevant and improper to this waiver proceeding, especially because Samsung is not seeking a waiver of the 3.7 GHz OOBE limits.”
CTIA is hopeful a legislative vehicle will be found soon that will restore general FCC auction authority, more than a year after it lapsed, CTIA Senior Vice President-Spectrum Umair Javed said Wednesday during a Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy webcast. “It sort of feels like there’s a lot of smoke, and maybe not fire yet,” Javed said. He hopes a bill floated by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, will provide the needed “spark.”