CTIA, NCTA Clash on FCC Proposal for Wi-Fi in 6 GHz Band
With the FCC expected in April to tackle order on the 6 GHz band, CTIA remains committed to licensed use of part of the band, Jen Oberhausen, director-regulatory affairs, said during a Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council teleconference Thursday. CTIA is fighting what some think is a losing battle to get the FCC to reconsider a plan to open all the spectrum for unlicensed use (see 2003050058).
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CTIA agrees the U.S. needs more channels for the next generation of Wi-Fi, Oberhausen said. But with 1,200 MHz available, “that’s a lot of spectrum,” she said: “We think it’s a great opportunity to enable new unlicensed and licensed services.”
By limiting unlicensed to the lower 500 or 600 MHz, the FCC would “roughly double the mid-band spectrum available today for unlicensed use” and “that’s a huge win,” Oberhausen said. “We’ve seen the unlicensed community celebrate other countries who have done exactly that.” CTIA wants the FCC to “hit pause” on the upper half so the regulator can “fully consider all of the options on the table, can take stock of how the market develops for Wi-Fi,” she said.
NCTA wants to have Wi-Fi throughout 6 GHz, said Danielle Pineres, associate general counsel. The 6 GHz band “is the future home for Wi-Fi, both today and into the future,” she said. Wi-Fi advocates are moving forward on Wi-Fi 6, but “we don’t have contiguous 160 MHz channels available in the Wi-Fi band today. To really get the full benefits of the speeds that Wi-Fi 6 can enable, we need access” to more spectrum and “6 GHz is really the place to do that.” Other generations of Wi-Fi may make use of even broader channels, she said.
A “big hurdle” for CTIA’s proposal is that it’s not clear DOD operations and other incumbents would be able to move to other spectrum, as the group proposes, Pineres said. The proposal isn’t “fully formed,” she said.
Broadcasters have fixed studio-to-transmitter links and mobile operations in 6 GHz, said Patrick McFadden, NAB associate general counsel-legal and regulatory affairs. The fixed links are less of a challenge than mobile news-gathering, including camera-back transmitters and news trucks, he said. “We’re a little bit concerned about how those kinds of operations can be protected,” he said. Frequency coordination is difficult “because we don’t always know where news is going to break,” McFadden said. Broadcasters also have concerns about very low-power operations, especially because some news-gathering takes place indoors and “we’re not 100 percent convinced that indoor operations can be kept indoors,” he said.
NAB views 1,200 MHz “as an awful lot of spectrum,” McFadden said. The FCC could make hundreds of megahertz available now while delaying action on part of the band to allow time for additional study, he said. NAB like CTIA supports making the lower 500 MHz available, while seeking additional comment on the rest, he said. NAB hasn’t taken a position on licensing part of the spectrum. Broadcasters and others spent years trying to figure out how to make 280 MHz of C band available for 5G “and now we’re talking about giving away access to 1,200 MHz … to some of the wealthiest companies in the world.”
Clint Odom, National Urban League senior vice president-policy and advocacy, said no one should forget, regardless of whether licensed or unlicensed, people have to pay for broadband. “This is a brave new world that we’re entering into,” Odum said. “The abstractions of whether we use 1,200 MHz or something less … is really not something that communities of color and people who are having trouble affording broadband are really focused on,” he said: “They’re really focused on who can get a solution to me fastest and who provide a solution that’s affordable.”
Oberhausen said some estimates are that selling 600 MHz in the 6 GHz band would bring in more than $22 billion, and relocating incumbents would cost about $3 billion. Congress could use that money to fund rural build out and upgrading 911 networks. “Those opportunities would be lost of the full 6 GHz band were given away for free now,” she said.
CTIA members are anxiously awaiting the December C-band auction, Oberhausen said. Carriers don’t have any 3-7 GHz spectrum available now, she said. “What we’re seeing in the rest of the world is that by end of 2020 Japan will have 800 MHz of mid-band spectrum” available, while South Korea has 280 MHz and China 460, she said: “Those countries aren’t sitting still.”