AT&T, Sirius Agree on 2.3 GHz Issues
AT&T and Sirius XM filed a joint proposal at the FCC on an agreement the two companies reached on shared use of the 2.3 GHz band for the Wireless Communications Service and the Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service. The band received a prominent mention in the National Broadband Plan for reallocation for wireless broadband.
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The FCC approved an order reallocating the band as a first step toward the plan’s goal of freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over 10 years for wireless broadband (CD May 21/10 p5). But pending petitions for reconsideration filed at the FCC by the WCS Coalition, which represents WCS licensees, and Sirius has meant continuing uncertainty.
"This is incredibly significant,” said a lawyer active in the proceeding. “You have Sirius XM and a major licensee agreeing on technical and performance rules that have been the sticking point and prevented the band from being used for broadband.” Other licensees are still looking more closely at the proposal, the lawyer said: “Other than AT&T, I don’t believe any WCS licensee was aware of this filing. I think people are right at the moment taking a look at it."
Under the agreement (http://xrl.us/bnb5h6), Sirius XM essentially agreed to the lifting of restrictions that had precluded frequency division LTE from being deployed in the band. AT&T agreed to potentially more onerous coordination requirements. Still to be seen is whether other WCS licensees will sign off on a similar agreement. AT&T plans to use the AWS spectrum as part of its LTE buildout, but the band is being targeted to be used differently by different companies.
"The effort to reach this accommodation was significant, and required concessions on both sides,” AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said on an AT&T blog Monday (http://xrl.us/bnb5ie). “But this proposal, if accepted, will enable the adoption of technical rules satisfactory to both interests and should enable licensees in the 2.3 GHz WCS band to deploy the most efficient new mobile broadband technologies, including LTE, while not posing an unreasonable interference threat to satellite radio reception.”
A compromise wasn’t easy, Marsh said. “The WCS licensees’ views on potential service deployment were changing over time as new mobile broadband technologies came to the fore. The SDARS licensees, for their part, didn’t object to the development of broadband WCS, but they were growing their business while enduring years of uncertainty about whether proposed changes to the WCS rules would pose new threats to over 22 million satellite radio customers. The FCC Staff stood in the middle, trying to achieve a delicate balance that met the often conflicting demands by licensees in both bands.” Sirius had no comment, a spokesman said.