U.S. MOVES AHEAD ON 5 GHZ PROPOSAL AT WRC, FOCUSING ON EDUCATION

One factor that didn’t emerge in the first week of this WRC is a “megadeal,” Obuchowski said. That can be a harbinger of “linkage” later in some conferences for groups of administrations to link together items for mutual support, she said. At the WRC-2000 in Istanbul, in example, European and African administrations reached an agreement in that conference’s opening days to mutually support each other on a range of agenda items, setting up a scramble among U.S. delegates and others to retool strategy. On such “megadeals,” Obuchowski said as the first week ended: “We haven’t seen it this week, which isn’t necessarily a reason to stop looking, but that is one sign.”

On the 5 GHz item, Obuchowski said: “We believe we are making a lot of headway just with advocacy. We have a very good case to make on this. After all, we have space science [in that band], which is a key priority of our country. We still think the limited outdoor use that is contemplated is workable.” In Feb., U.S. industry and key govt. agencies, including the Defense Dept., bridged an impasse on a proposal for harmonized international spectrum at 5 GHz for Wi-Fi types of systems. The U.S. supports primary allocations in the 5150-5350 MHz and 5470-5725 MHz bands, along with regulatory provisions to protect existing services such as radars, space science applications, mobile satellites and other operations. Proposed mitigation measures to protect against interference include use of power limits and dynamic frequency selection techniques. “Moreover, the U.S. believes that both indoor and outdoor use of mobile devices should be permitted in the 5250-5350 MHz sub-band, since the proposed rules will be sufficient to protect radiolocation and earth exploration satellite service [EESS] in that band,” a U.S. position paper said.

A key difference with a common European proposal on the agenda item is that European administrations favor restricting the allocation to indoor use at 5150-5350 MHz to further protect against interference (CD June 12 p7). One WRC observer said some of the finer technical points of the agenda item were being massaged this week in working groups on research results, with some supporting proposed outdoor use restrictions in that band and others saying it isn’t needed. Part of the U.S. educational push at the conference on the item has been to stress the advantages of wider outdoor use in developing countries that might look to wireless LAN (WLAN) systems as part of a last-mile broadband solution, several sources said.

Part of the U.S. push on education also has involved a seminar held this week by delegates from the U.S. and Canada. A U.S. news release described the seminar as helping to inform WRC participants “how WLAN systems can revolutionize access for rural and previously underserved populations.” The focus of the seminar was on the applications of wireless LANs for rural communities, including broadband access, distance education, telemedicine and basic telephony, the U.S. said. Lauren Van Wazer, of the FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology, described projects in San Diego County in which a Wi-Fi system is connecting 7,600 Native Americans, and in Lucknow, India, where a project is linking 25 rural villages that lack electricity and basic phone service.

“Right now we are getting really good feedback,” Obuchowski said last week, acknowledging that the European proposal differed on certain proposed outdoor restrictions. While Europe has a common proposal, “that doesn’t mean that Europe is quite as monolithic as these common proposals would suggest,” she said.

In a filing made just before the June 9 start of the WRC, which ends July 4, the U.S. reiterated its support for the Inter-American Telecom Commission (CITEL) proposal on that item. But it acknowledged that views differed on how to protect the EESS. The CITEL proposal “contains additional protection measures that are not required.” The U.S. said that while some studies had shown that constraints, including indoor usage for radio LANs, would be sufficient to protect EESS operations, other studies had pointed to other possibilities for protecting EESS (active). Afer extensive study of wireless access systems and the EESS (active), the U.S. said it concluded that EESS would be sufficiently protected if a large percentage of the unlicensed devices “were not simultaneously operated outdoors in concentrated areas.”

Obuchowski said proposals on future WRC agenda items were “going to be a very lively item to watch. You have got all the dynamics of the spectrum world that come into play here.” The agenda item, known as 7.2, pulls into play the dynamic of policy-makers “taking out their crystal balls” and trying to evaluate what areas should take priority over the next 4 years, she said. (The next WRC is scheduled for 2007). “At the same time, you have a move afoot at the ITU, and really generically across governments, to use finite government resources in a more efficient fashion,” Obuchowski said. One of the focuses of this year’s conference has been how to simultaneously complete a massive 48-item agenda in 4 weeks while looking ahead to a more streamlined set of proposals for the next WRC (CD June 16 p5).