Qualcomm Presses Case for Broadband on Commercial Flights
The FCC has a “very solid record” for launching a rulemaking on a Next Generation Air-Ground Communications Service on a secondary licensed basis in the 14.0-14.5 GHz band, for offering broadband on commercial flights, Qualcomm said in reply comments filed at the FCC in docket RM-11640. Qualcomm filed technical papers earlier this year, making its case for the allocation, along with petition for rulemaking. In May, the International Bureau sought comment.
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Under its proposal, Qualcomm said, the FCC would be able to auction off 500 MHz of spectrum, licensed for secondary use. “There can be no serious question of the need for a high-data-rate air-ground network to maintain high-speed in-flight connectivity such as that proposed in the Next-Gen AG Petition,” Qualcomm said (http://xrl.us/bni2db). “Major U.S. airlines and leading air-ground communications service provider Gogo have told the Commission that mobile broadband demand on-board aircraft is exploding. They are seeing increasing numbers of customers that want to use multiple Wi-Fi-enabled devices while in flight."
Qualcomm blasted arguments against the proposal by the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) and in-flight entertainment platform provider Row 44. Both “largely rehash arguments made last year to which Qualcomm previously provided full responses,” Qualcomm said. Neither opponent responded to a request for comment. “It is important to reiterate that Qualcomm’s detailed technical analysis is based on very conservative operational assumptions, which ensure that all incumbent users will be protected by a substantial margin,” the company said.
Too many questions remain about the effect on the fixed satellite service, the SIA said in a filing last month (http://xrl.us/bni2ee). “Given the absence of basic technical characteristics, as well as gaps and unsupported assumptions in its spectrum sharing analysis, it is not possible for interested parties to adequately assess the interference impacts of Qualcomm’s complex proposal, other than to say that the interference to and from primary FSS services in the 14.0-14.5 GHz is likely to be greater than predicted,” SIA said.
Boeing raised similar concerns in a filing posted by the FCC Wednesday. “The introduction of a new, terrestrial ATG service into a band already intensively used by the satellite industry could significantly impact existing and future services, and ATG interference into these services may be significantly worse than Qualcomm assumed in its Petition,” Boeing said (http://xrl.us/bni2er). “Additionally, Qualcomm has not adequately shown that an ATG service in the band could tolerate interference it receives from existing operations.” Qualcomm hasn’t met “the legal burden of providing ’sufficient reason’ to justify initiation of a proceeding, as well as the logical burden of fully explaining how such a service is consistent with the protection and growth of existing services,” Boeing said.