Aeronautical Safety Proposal Provides Only Controversy at WAC Meeting
Questions arose Monday over a U.S. position on the use of fixed satellite service earth stations in the 3.4-4.2 GHz band for aeronautical communications. The issues were raised at a meeting of the FCC’s World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) Advisory Committee (WAC) to discuss items handled so far by the four Informal Working Groups (IWGs).
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The U.S. position encourages further study by the ITU, according to a document submitted to the FCC (http://xrl.us/bnr7py) on WRC Agenda Item 9.1.5. But AT&T, Motorola Mobility, Intel, Nokia, AT&T all asked for further discussions since part of the band is already designated for wireless communications by the WRC.
Some U.S. companies have raised “concerns about the risk of using this band for the transmission of aeronautical and meteorological information that might give it an aura of safety status” and asked that it be returned the IWG for more discussion, said WAC Vice Chair Diane Cornell, vice president at Inmarsat. “We'd be glad to take it back,” said Steve Baruch, of Leventhal Senter, chair of IWG-4, which is handling the item.
Another item that provoked some questions was agenda item 1.18, asking that the WRC consider a primary allocation for automotive applications in the 77.5-78.0 GHz frequency band (http://xrl.us/bnr7s7). “We are still digesting the set of radars in this radar band,” said Bob Dockemeyer of Delphi. “Right now we're abstaining on it. We don’t see a problem, but we still need to look at it.” The American Radio Relay League has also raised some concerns, according to a WAC document.
WAC Chairman Scott Harris, executive vice president at Neustar, said the IWGs have already done “an awful lot of work” since the initial WAC meeting Aug. 9. “Even when there’s still some controversy on one issue, you guys have really gone a long way towards getting stuff done,” Harris said. Earlier in the meeting, Harris joked about how many of the items the IWGs are working through haven’t been controversial. “It’s hard to make this interesting,” he said. “I can’t make many jokes or anything. It’s tough.”
The WAC will next meet March 7 at 11 a.m. at FCC headquarters. “That should, I think, allow all of the IWGs sufficient time to initiate advanced development of their resolutions, to work out the couple of issues that still need to be worked out on the issues you've dealt with already,” Harris said.