Wireless, Satellite, GPS Support Expanding 2 GHz Band Use With Additional Proposals

Comments on proposals for service and licensing rules and other technical considerations on the proposed AWS-4 band again show the need carriers have for licensed spectrum for wireless broadband, CTIA said. The 2 GHz spectrum, now allocated to MSS, is some of the most promising remaining for reallocation as licensed spectrum for wireless broadband, carriers agree. “Once again, the Commission has developed a record that demonstrates the extreme need for additional spectrum for wireless broadband services,” CTIA said (http://xrl.us/bnab7e). A final plan for the spectrum must “(1) take into account the risk of harmful interference to neighboring incumbent operations, and (2) make the most productive use of both the AWS-4 and nearby spectrum identified for mobile broadband service,” CTIA said. The FCC shouldn’t adopt “use it or share it” or adopt specific interference rules protecting GPS as part of the services in this proceeding, the group said.

CTIA noted that since it filed initial comments, Cisco released its annual report on what it expects to be massive growth in the Internet in just a few years (CD May 31 p8). “As consumers increasingly rely on mobile broadband in their daily lives and use mobile broadband networks for ever more sophisticated services, the strain on wireless networks will get progressively greater,” the association said.

Verizon Wireless said the FCC shouldn’t impose conditions on the spectrum, like those sought by commenters led by the New America Foundation and the Rural Cellular Association, limiting its ability to make a play for the spectrum. “The proposed conditions, lack factual support and are discriminatory, would undermine Commission policy, and would in any event be unworkable,” Verizon Wireless said (http://xrl.us/bnab8f). The commission should reject calls to impose the same kinds of limits on it and AT&T that were approved as part of the SkyTerra-Harbinger transaction, Verizon Wireless said. Under the 2010 order, neither of the two largest carriers can lease capacity from Skyterra without commission permission. The condition doesn’t apply to other carriers. “These conditions would irrationally discriminate among wireless competitors by restricting the ability of Verizon Wireless and AT&T -- but no other competitor -- to enter freely into agreements to lease or otherwise use spectrum,” Verizon Wireless said.

Sprint Nextel said the FCC should “move quickly to license not only the AWS-4 Spectrum, but also the additional spectrum located in the H Block adjacent to core PCS operations” (http://xrl.us/bnab8o). MetroPCS reiterated arguments that the commission must structure a plan that would “allow DISH to pursue both satellite and terrestrial mobile services, while recapturing a portion of the spectrum” without realizing “an undeserved windfall” for the spectrum (http://xrl.us/bnab97).

Iridium and Globalstar clashed over whether terrestrial use should be expanded in the Big LEO band. Iridium urged the commission to reject any suggestion to consider expanding such use (http://xrl.us/bnache). With Iridium utilizing Big LEO spectrum to deliver essential MSS communications to public safety, government and commercial personnel, the FCC should ensure that “the band is preserved and protected for satellite use and reject any suggestion that would expand terrestrial use of the Big LEO MSS band,” Iridium said. It said that, using the largest commercial satellite constellation in the world, “Iridium has expanded its vital service worldwide without the need for any subsidization by terrestrial use."

Globalstar urged the commission to expeditiously adopt new, clearly-defined rules for terrestrial operations in MSS frequencies in the 2 GHz band and immediately thereafter in the Big LEO band (http://xrl.us/bnachn). The company called Iridium’s claims baseless: Iridium “provides no technical evidence that such terrestrial operations would cause harmful interference ... to its current or future services above 1618.725 MHz.” However, terrestrial use of Big LEO spectrum should be addressed in a separate rulemaking, Globalstar said. It cautioned against conditions concerning AWS-4 authority, arrangements with Verizon Wireless and AT&T and other suggestions from T-Mobile, RCA and some public-interest groups. Overly stringent buildout requirements and related penalties “would have a substantial deterrent effect on broadband development in the 2 GHz band,” Globalstar said.

New America Foundation, Public Knowledge and Consumers Union support requiring AWS-4 licensees to offer wholesale leasing and roaming on at least a substantial portion of a licensee’s network capacity. Guaranteed access to wireless service “would result in compelling public interest benefits for not only competitive carriers and their subscribers, but also for device makers, retailers ... and other innovators and entrepreneurs,” they said (http://xrl.us/bnacht). The groups also support a proposal from the RCA, calling for a condition prohibiting licensees from providing “to any combination of the largest and second largest wireless providers, traffic accounting for more than 25 percent of the total bytes of data carried over that network without prior commission approval."

The U.S. GPS Industry Council reiterated the need for a more stringent out-of-band emission limit (http://xrl.us/bnachz). Radio navigation satellite service-received signal strength “is substantially lower than for terrestrial mobile broadband services, including their long-term evolution implementations,” the council said. It said the FCC should reject suggestions that it expand the scope of the proceeding to consider more intensive terrestrial use of the MSS L-band spectrum as well. The council said the unique characteristics of the different bands in which MSS and associated ancillary terrestrial component operations “are currently permitted necessitate separate consideration of expanded terrestrial operation within each band.”,