CSMAC Working Groups Won’t Meet Deadline for Final Reports
The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee’s push to delve deeper into spectrum sharing, especially in the 1755-1850 MHz, is starting to bear fruit. CSMAC is slated to hear reports at its meeting Thursday from several of its key working groups looking at the hundreds of issues that will arise if government users in the band share the spectrum with commercial operators. But several of the groups say they won’t meet a February due date for final reports.
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Five working groups were previously tasked by NTIA with looking at sharing issues in the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755 MHz bands. Working groups started to offer some of their preliminary conclusions at the CSMAC’s last meeting in October (CD Oct 5 p3). Access to the 1755-1780 MHz spectrum in particular has long been a top industry priority.
Working Group 2, looking at sharing with federal video surveillance systems, is slated to submit a final report, which has been posted by NTIA (http://xrl.us/boastr). The working group ranks 176 economic areas (EAs) based on how imminent it is that systems located there be relocated or otherwise addressed, clearing the way for commercial operations. The New York City area tops the list, followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. Spectrum in the 1755-1780 MHz range should be addressed first, followed by the rest of the band, the report said.
"The WG2 participants acknowledged that the exact order in which agencies will be able to clear the EAs will be based on the federal agencies’ operational requirements and may vary from the industry priority,” the report said. “WG2 did not assess the feasibility of federal agencies’ ability to transition systems out of the band according to the industry implementation priority. This recommended priority list will serve as input to affected federal agencies with video surveillance operations in this band, to consider as they develop their transition plans to relocate out of the spectrum, if it is identified for auction and an auction date is established by the FCC."
Working Group 3, on 1755-1850 MHz satellite control links and electronic warfare, will only offer a status update at the meeting, warning that its final report will not be ready as hoped by February (http://xrl.us/boasuf). The report said the working group has yet to receive critical information it needs from the Department of Defense and other government agencies. Working Group 4, on sharing with Point-to-Point Microwave, Tactical Radio Relay (TRR) and Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) operations, also will tell CSMAC that, because of the slow flow of information, when it will make its recommendations on some key points remains “TBD” or to be determined (http://xrl.us/boasu6). Its preliminary conclusions are that microwave systems “can relocate” but “further study is necessary to determine the level of sharing with TRR and JTRS that is feasible.”