Airlines Want 60-Day Comment Period on Upper C-Band NPRM
Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu met with an aide to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr last week about his industry’s work with wireless carriers on protecting radio altimeters in the upper C band. Sununu asked the agency to allow more time for comments than is proposed in a draft NPRM, set for a vote Thursday.
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 airline industry wants to work with carriers and others to help the FCC hold an upper C-band spectrum auction by July 2027, said a filing posted Friday in docket 25-59. “The ongoing impacts of the government shutdown on airlines, combined with the potential that the NPRM comment period would overlap with the December holidays,” warrant a comment period of 60 days rather than the 30 days proposed. A longer comment period “would ensure the airline industry can develop well-informed comments that would assist the Commission in moving expeditiously to a final report and order following the close of the comment cycle.”
The group also cautioned that a footnote in the draft contains “outdated cost data” for lower C-Band retrofits “and clarified that the previous retrofit primarily required filters, not the complete replacement of radio altimeters, which will be significantly more costly.”
Another filing posted Friday in the docket recapped SpaceX's meetings with aides to all three commissioners and other FCC staff, where the company asked the commission to seek comment on whether to reserve some spectrum in the band for next-generation fixed and mobile satellite service. “Reserving spectrum for next-generation satellite systems will provide a necessary guard band between high-powered terrestrial service and radio altimeters in the adjacent 4.2-4.4 GHz band,” SpaceX said. Dedicated satellite spectrum would also enable investment of U.S.-licensed satellite operators “to design, build, and deploy next-generation C-band systems for American consumers and to compete internationally with foreign-owned and state-backed competitors in international markets leveraging globally harmonized C-band satellite allocations.”
CTIA representatives also completed their series of discussions with commissioner aides (see 2511120038) by meeting with staff for Commissioner Anna Gomez. The group said it supports an emerging technologies framework “as the appropriate foundation for transitioning additional C-band spectrum and applauded the FCC’s recognition of the need to further consider the cost reimbursement and incentive payment structure.”