Pai Makes 5G the Focus of Busy March FCC Meeting
The FCC will take up an order at the March 15 commissioners’ meeting setting aside a big chunk of spectrum across four bands, above 95 GHz, for 5G, Chairman Ajit Pai said Thursday. With President Donald Trump also tweeting about 5G (see 1902210057), Pai blogged that 5G is the meeting’s key focus. The agenda also includes 900 MHz rules and media modernization and repacking reimbursement orders. Also on the agenda: spectrum partitioning, disaggregation and spectrum leasing rules, tougher requirements for locating wireless calls to 911 and intermediate carrier standards to improve rural call completion. Draft items are to be released Friday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
“The order I have circulated would make a massive 21.2 gigahertz of spectrum above 95 GHz available for unlicensed use across four frequency bands,” Pai blogged. He also proposed a new type of experimental license to “permit experimental use on any frequency from 95 GHz to 3 THz, with no limits on geography or technology.”
In an NPRM last February, the FCC sought comment on fixed point-to-point operations in the 95-100, 102-109.5, 111.8-114.25, 122.25-123, 130-134, 141-148.5, 151.5-158.5, 174.5-174.8, 231.5-232, and 240-241 GHz bands based on rules for the 70/80/90 GHz band. It also sought comment on applying the same rules in bands “that may be suitable for licensed fixed operations,” including 158.5-164, 167-174.5, 191.8-200, 209-226, 232-235, 238-240 and 252-275 GHz. That NPRM asks “whether mobile operations may be appropriate for any bands above 95 GHz with mobile allocations.”
“It’s gratifying that they’re acting so promptly,” said Michael Marcus, former FCC engineer and consultant who has long urged action on the bands above 95 GHz. “Normally, they don’t do things that quickly,” he said.
It’s too early to carve spectrum above 95 GHz into bands for specific services or exclusive licensing, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “A combination of unlicensed and experimental licensing is very definitely the right policy mix.” What Pai describes “appears to be a welcome effort to give innovators a chance to develop new generations of wireless technology without being limited by arbitrary band boundaries or wild guesses about the highest and best use of very high-frequency spectrum 10 or 20 years from now,” he said.
A second order addresses broadband in the 900 MHz band. In August 2017, the FCC sought comment on ways to increase access to spectrum and improve the 900 MHz band's flexibility and efficiency. A notice of inquiry asked for comment on the 896-901/935-940 MHz band, designated in 1986 for narrowband private land mobile radio communications by business, industrial and land transportation licensees and specialized mobile radio providers (see 1708070043).
“Over 30 years ago, this band was designated for narrowband communications -- think of things like two-way dispatch radios used by business, industrial, and land transportation licensees,” Pai said. “Under my leadership, the FCC launched a fresh inquiry to explore new uses for this band. Based on what we’ve learned, I’m proposing to make a segment of the 900 MHz band available for broadband, which will improve the user experience.”
Media Items
The agency will also vote on a repacking reimbursement order on the low-power TV, radio and TV translators at the March meeting, as expected (see 1902190057). The FCC “will vote on a Report and Order which will establish rules for the disbursement of this funding,” said Pai in his post. It’s not yet clear the order will handle issues around funding for FM stations and LPTV stations that received repacking help from third parties, but it isn’t expected to be controversial, industry officials have told us.
The March meeting includes a media modernization order to allow broadcast satellite stations to be transferred without requiring their satellite status be reauthorized. “These burdens can discourage companies from seeking to keep satellite stations on the air,” Pai said. Though the streamlining proposal is largely seen as uncontroversial, then-Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly disagreed over how the NPRM would treat changes in parent station ownership.
Pai said he also proposed an NPRM seeking comment on possible changes to FCC “partitioning, disaggregation, and spectrum leasing rules that could encourage more secondary market transactions and expand spectrum access in underserved rural areas.” The congressionally approved Mobile Now Act, part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, required the NPRM, Pai said.
On a fourth wireless item, Pai said the FCC will vote on rules requiring that carriers be able to find callers to 911 with greater accuracy. “To better equip first responders to do their jobs, we’ll be voting on a proposal to establish a vertical, or z-axis, location accuracy metric of 3 meters” (nearly 10 feet), Pai said. The FCC has long been looking at imposing this additional metric (see 1501130062). Pai said at a National Emergency Number Association lunch Feb. 15 that action was pending (see 1902150036).
Another order would establish service-quality standards for intermediate providers carrying traffic between originating and terminating carriers. The aim is to help ensure that any calls handled by "middlemen" carriers "actually reach their intended destination," Pai said. "As we transition to new rules, the order would also sunset our outdated call data recording and retention rules one year after these new service quality standards become effective." The FCC faces a Tuesday deadline. The item was delayed due to the government shutdown.