No Need to Change Microwave Licensing Rules, Commenters Tell FCC
Current rules are working and there is no need for the government to make changes, Sprint Nextel, the Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition (FWCC) and Clearwire told the FCC in separate filings in response to a June Wireless Bureau public notice (http://xrl.us/bncgh9), asking about the “rejection rate” on requests for common carrier use of spectrum in the 11 GHz, 18 GHz and 23 GHz bands. The FCC was required to make the inquiry and report to Congress by the spectrum law enacted in February. Sixteen years ago, the FCC consolidated its rules for most microwave point-to-point and point-to-multipoint services into a new Part 101 of the commission’s rules.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
Since Jan. 1, 2010, “Sprint has been able to successfully coordinate and obtain microwave licenses in the 11 GHz, 18 GHz and 23 GHz bands in the specific areas requested,” Sprint said ((http://xrl.us/bnhjrb). “Sprint submits that the Commission’s current microwave licensing rules, which require advance frequency coordination, prior notice to nearby licensees, and then the filing of an application with the Commission, have maximized spectrum efficiency in these fixed microwave bands.” The current regime usually results “in the desired spectrum band being available in even the largest, most-congested markets, making available this critical resource to the maximum number of users and future applicants,” Sprint said. “Further, the Commission’s current regulatory regime encourages other efficiencies such as co-location of antenna sites, operational reliability and avoidance of harmful interference."
Auctioning the 11, 18, and 23 GHz bands would be a mistake, the FWCC said. “The ‘rejection rate’ at the center of Congress’s inquiry, however construed, is close to zero,” the group said (http://xrl.us/bnhjro). “The frequency coordination process required under the Commission’s rules has been extremely successful at fitting in a growing number of Fixed Service microwave users, without creating interference.” In contrast, “Fixed Service auctions have not fared well,” the FWCC said. “All four of the Fixed Service bands that the Commission has auctioned in the past remain under-utilized. This precedent suggests that an auction of the 11, 18, and 23 GHz bands would likewise result in severely diminished growth. Moreover, considering the historically limited financial returns from the other auctioned Fixed Service bands, together with the high level of occupancy of the 11, 18, and 23 GHz bands, an auction of the latter would be unlikely to return much revenue."
Clearwire noted it holds some 13,000 microwave licenses, covering about 48,000 paths across those three frequency bands and is “particularly well-suited to provide information about the use and application process associated with microwave spectrum in the 11, 18 and 23 GHz microwave bands.” The current microwave licensing process, which relies on frequency coordination through a third party frequency coordinator and an application filed at the FCC based on that frequency, is working well, Clearwire said (http://xrl.us/bnhjur). “From its inception, Clearwire has relied on a backhaul network that is predominately a ring topology constructed of point-to- point microwave links,” the company said. “Advancements in microwave antenna technology have allowed carriers like Clearwire to achieve the reliability and resiliency needed to support advanced wireless services using wireless backhaul. The utilization of a microwave backhaul solution allowed Clearwire to launch its wireless broadband network with backhaul operating costs of 50-75 percent less than the traditional backhaul solutions.”