Wireless Telemetry Advocates Score Late Win as FCC OK's Revised Part 15 Rules
The FCC approved updated Part 15 rules, which provide additional protections for hospitals that use wireless telemetry in channel 37. In an usual development, the rules include a proposal by Commissioner Ajit Pai that allows hospitals to apply for a waiver giving them expanded protection zones upon the filing of a waiver request. The agency approved the order on a 5-0 vote Thursday.
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The Wireless Medical Telemetry Service Coalition (WMTS) and GE Healthcare had pushed the FCC to rethink proposed technical rules to protect wireless telemetry from TV white spaces (TVWS) devices (see 1507290060). Wednesday, three Democratic senators asked for a three-month delay to a decision on channel 37 (see 1508050074). Instead, the FCC adopted the Pai-sponsored compromise.
Pai said he had proposed that hospitals could get protection zones three times as large as normal upon the filing of a waiver request: “With this mechanism in place, the order now creates the right incentives for both the WMTS and unlicensed communities to negotiate in good faith and reach a consensus-based approach to sharing the spectrum while at the same time protecting WMTS from harmful interference.”
The American Hospital Association said the technical rules don't go far enough to protect medical telemetry. The rules adopted still allow white spaces devices to operate in close proximity to hospitals, AHA said in a news release. “These unlicensed devices may cause interference with wireless monitoring, preventing doctors and nurses from receiving vital information,” AHA said. “There are more than 360,000 WMTS patient monitors in hospitals today, many of which are used for women and infants during labor and delivery and critical heart surgery patients.” The group said that many hospitals lack the “staff expertise and resources” to comply with the rules that allow them to file a waiver request to get enhanced protection.
The Part 15 rule changes update unlicensed rules in other areas as well. They're designed to “permit more robust and efficient operation of fixed and personal/portable white space devices in television broadcast bands without increasing the risk of interference to broadcast services,” the FCC said in a news release. They allow fixed and mobile white spaces devices to operate in the 600 MHz TV band, including the duplex gap and guard bands and channel 37 and allow sharing of spectrum between white space devices and unlicensed microphones in the 600 MHz band, the FCC said. It said the rules also update the rules for the white spaces databases and “adopt transition periods for the certification, manufacturing and marketing of white space devices and wireless microphones that comply with new rules.” The agency said the unlicensed world has changed markedly "from basic garage door openers and cordless phones to Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth technologies" to the IoT.
Congress required the FCC to auction the 600 MHz band, said Chairman Tom Wheeler. "That means that the people who are in the 600 Mhz band are going to be affected," he said. "They're going to have new operating parameters and that's what we do today."
Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the Part 15 rules do a good job of balancing various interests and are based on engineering. Clyburn said at one point she had urged the Office of Engineering and Technology to kick the lawyers out of the room and listen to the engineers, and it did just that. Wireless telemetry provides “real-time lifesaving information to medical professionals,” she said. “Wireless microphones allow for broadcasters to report the news in an untethered manner and for performers to entertain us on stage without the worry of tripping over cords.” The TV white spaces “offer low-cost ways to bring mobile broadband to unserved and underserved areas, such as rural and lower income urban communities,” Clyburn said.
Most people don’t know about the importance of the Part 15 rules, but the rules support the unlicensed technologies they use everyday, said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “We expand the spectrum available to unlicensed devices,” she said. “We increase the power levels for unlicensed devices serving rural areas in order to broaden their service range. At the same time, we bolster the amount of information in white space databases to help alleviate interference concerns.
Commissioner Mike O'Rielly urged the agency to take a broader look at antenna height limitations. The issue is important in particular to wireless ISPs, he said. O'Rielly also said the commission should continue its work to open up the 5.9 GHz band for unlicensed use. "We can come to successful resolution" of remaining interference issues in that band, he said. "We're finding ways to make things work."
The FCC “wisely adopted incentive auction rules that ensure at least three channels for enhanced Wi-Fi access in every market nationwide,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America’s Open Technology Institute. “Preserving public access to unlicensed spectrum in the prime TV band frequencies is more important to the public interest than more one-time revenue from an auction.”