Fixed Wireless Group Hopes for Quick FCC Action on Frequency Modulation Request
Both sides indicated willingness to compromise on a Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition proposal at the FCC to clarify that companies can reduce data rates for point-to-point transmissions to keep a link in service, without violating commission rules. The FCBA’s wireless and engineering committees held a joint lunch on adaptive modulation Thursday, focusing on the FWCC request for interpretation, filed at the FCC May 8.
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The discussion has broadband implications, since the spectrum bands discussed -- the 4, 6, 10, and 11 GHz bands -- are used for wireless backhaul, which is important for greater broadband deployment. The 6 GHz band in particular is important for backhaul.
In May the FWCC asked the FCC to clarify that under its rules companies with long-haul links in the 6 GHz and other bands are allowed to use lower data rates temporarily during brief periods when the link would otherwise be temporarily out of service, such as during a storm. The group was joined by Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola and Ericsson. FWCC believe’s the FCC can issue a clarifying statement without launching a full-scale rulemaking.
Jim Wolfson, president of X-DOT, an engineering and consulting firm, and vice president of the National Spectrum Management Association, said any change by the FCC should be considered “cautiously and carefully.” He repeated concerns he had expressed last month at the NMSA meeting in Arlington, Va. (CD May 20 p4). “The lower frequency bands are the critical, only option for many longer paths,” he said.
Wolfson proposed on Thursday that rules controlling adaptive modulation should be as “specific” and “enforceable” as possible. He said operators should not be allowed to police themselves on their compliance with the rules. He also suggested that a timer be integrated into equipment to guarantee that lower frequencies really are used for only limited periods of time as proposed by the FWCC.
Mitchell Lazarus, attorney for the FWCC, said his group asked that the commission not put out a public notice on the filing and treat it as “such a minor interpretation with no downside to any other user” that it could be addressed through a letter order. “They tell me they're reading it,” he said of FCC staff. “As we all know nothing is coming out of the commission and has not been for several months. I wouldn’t expect to see this acted on in any respect until we have a new chairman and a new Wireless Bureau chief.”
Lazarus said the FWCC would support more “specificity” as Wolfson requested “in the long run,” he said. “But to put that into a letter … would make this into a petition for rulemaking and would set out a two, three, four or five year process and we wanted to get some action from the FCC soon.”
Scott Nelson, a network and solutions architect with Alcatel-Lucent, said requiring timers as part of equipment would mean less equipment built for the band. “Given that the rest of the world doesn’t require it, and it would be required specifically here, it makes it less attractive to produce equipment,” Nelson said. “There will be vendors who will supply this market because in terms of dollars it’s sizable. But that will probably limit the playing field and also create higher costs, which would be detrimental to the industry.”
The Wireless Bureau had been asked by organizers of the FCBA event to send a speaker to give commission views but declined to do so.