FCC WRC Advisory Group Final Meeting Unable to Reach Consensus on Some Items
The FCC WRC-19 Advisory Committee (WAC) wrapped up work Monday, after finalizing nearly 100 recommendations to the World Radiocommuncation Conference this fall in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. In some cases, as is typical for WRC meetings, the WAC wasn’t able to develop a single unified position. The FCC is to release items addressed at the meeting for comment by Friday, agency officials said, so they can be ready for submission to the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL).
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“These … recommendations have formed the basis for nearly all the U.S. proposals submitted to CITEL thus far as well as some regional agreements with our CITEL partners,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who spoke briefly at the start of the meeting. “U.S. leadership in 5G and all advanced communication wouldn't be possible without the commitment that you have shown to the effort through this WAC.” The informal committees, which do most of the work, reported more than 300 hours of meetings during WRC prep, Pai said.
Michael Mullinix, an FCC staffer assigned to the WAC, said time is short and his agency is seeking comment on an abbreviated schedule: “It will be a bit of a sprint.” The FCC will look more deeply at items for WRC-22 before a CITEL meeting in August in Ottawa, Mullinix said.
All of the items before the WAC were approved without challenge. The items can be seen here.
Informal Working Group 2 Terrestrial Service was the most contentious, FCC officials acknowledged. One of the most divisive items was proposal 82 on international mobile telecom (IMT) in the 45.5-47.2 GHz range. WAC approved two different positions.
AT&T, CTIA, Ericsson, GSMA, Intel, Nokia, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon supported potentially opening the band for IMT. “Large amounts of spectrum will be needed for IMT services to support the growth in IMT-2020 services in future,” they said: “Serious consideration should be given to all bands under study for Agenda item 1.13 to accommodate such growth.”
The GPS Innovation Alliance, American Radio Relay League, SES Americom and Lockheed Martin opposed that recommendation. There have been no sharing and compatibility studies between IMT-2020 systems and “relevant incumbent services” in the 45.5-47 GHz and 47-47.2 GHz bands, they said: “In the absence of studies … only sustainable conclusion is that it has not been demonstrated that the incumbent services in either band -- the mobile-satellite service, the radionavigation service, and the radionavigation-satellite service in the 45.5-47 GHz band, and the amateur and amateur-satellite services in the 47-47.2 GHz band -- can be protected.”
WAC also approved two different positions on 50.4-52.6 GHz, proposal 83. AT&T, CTIA, Ericsson, GSMA, Intel, Nokia, Samsung, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon want the frequency range to be studied for IMT. Echostar, Lockheed Martin, SES Americom and WorldVu Satellites disagreed. IWG 3 Space Services also found no consensus on several of its items, including proposal 88 on allocation of the 51.4-52.4 GHz band to the fixed-satellite service.