Google, Facebook Support Calls That WRC Look at Spectrum Needs of Drones

Google said it supports View A, the view promoted by Alcatel-Lucent and Harris Wiltshire, in favor of a U.S. position seeking an examination of expanding the frequencies that could be used for drones. “View A is preferable to View B because it provides a wider range of specific bands to study for a new generation of lightweight aircraft to deliver broadband, thereby providing stakeholders greater flexibility to respond to emerging technological developments,” the high-tech company said. “By not prejudging the outcome of detailed coexistence studies in particular bands, View A is better designed to achieve fair and efficient spectrum use.” High-altitude platform stations (HAPS) “are reaching a critical point, with multiple U.S. companies planning HAPS deployments to extend the reach of broadband to unserved and underserved communities across the globe,” Google said. “Now is the time to study whether existing … regulations are sufficient to facilitate this important innovation.”

Facebook said that as part of its Internet.org project, it's developing high altitude aircraft that can be used for broadband delivery. “The spectrum needed for HAPS has grown with the exponential growth in the bandwidth requirements of broadband access,” Facebook said. “The Commission should serve the cause of broadband availability and facilitate HAPS deployment by advocating a HAPS agenda item for WRC-2019.” Facebook noted that 3.2 billion people use the Internet. “This is an incredible milestone, but it also means that only 43.4 percent of the world’s population has ever been connected to the Internet,” the company said. In the developing world, only 35.3 percent of the population is online, Facebook said.

T-Mobile noted that there is a difference of opinion on the WAC about whether the FCC should limit its position on changing international allocation on mobile broadband to just the Americas region or to the allocation tables for all three regions. The primary conflict is between carriers and the fixed satellite industry, and T-Mobile sides with carriers. “T-Mobile supports the U.S. taking Positions that will lead to more spectrum allocated to mobile broadband both home and abroad,” it said. In 2019, total data traffic is expected to be about 100 times greater than in 2010, when the world was preparing for the last WRC, T-Mobile said. 4G Americas supports U.S. positions “most likely to lead to harmonized mobile allocations in the 1300-1400, 1427-1518 MHz, and 2700-2900 MHz bands,” it said. “As many commenters have noted in many of the proceedings before the Commission and elsewhere, demand for mobile data is rapidly growing.”

Boeing expressed strong support for a WRC agenda item to add an allocation in the 4200-4400 MHz band for wireless avionics intra-communications (WAIC). “As Boeing and other major aerospace industry representatives have explained, WAIC will increase the safety and efficiency of aircraft operation by substituting some portion of voluminous aircraft wiring with short range wireless systems,” Boeing said. “WAIC systems are safer because they reduce cabling and mechanical stress on the wires and provide for dissimilar redundancy.” Aircraft operations are more efficient when up to 30 percent of onboard wires can be replaced with lightweight wireless connections, the company said. “With the total weight of wiring and fixtures on modern passenger aircraft exceeding six tons, this substantial savings can improve fuel efficiency, thus providing environmental benefits and cost savings to manufacturers and operators.”

Satellite Weighs In

The satellite world put its weight strongly behind its being allocated additional spectrum in the 8.5-9 GHz and 32.3-37 GHz bands for fixed satellite service (FSS). Despite industry efforts to squeeze the most efficiency it can from the FSS spectrum, “there is a demand for FSS that is surpassing the amount of spectrum available,” the Satellite Industry Association said.

EchoStar and rival ViaSat plan to launch a number of satellites that will operate in FSS in the Ka band in 2016, Hughes Network and parent company EchoStar said. “This is just the tip of the iceberg for these and other operators,” the two said, pointing to upcoming launches by DirecTV, Eutelsat, Inmarsat, Intelsat and SES that will need FSS access. “Satellite bands are reaching capacity and the existing spectrum that still remains available, such as in the V band, is expected to become heavily utilized in the near future.”

Part of the WRC-15 agenda is to tee up WRC-15, and EchoStar, Lockheed Martin and SES Americom raised questions regarding the proposed WRC-2019 agenda item for studying mobile broadband spectrum above 6 GHz. The idea being promoted by the mobile broadband community “appears simple: allow the industry to look wherever it wants, without regard to current users and other services,” Lockheed Martin said. There is no chance ITU Radiocommunication sector could do compatibility and sharing studies in all bands above 6 GHz over the next three years, so any new allocations would have to be in a far narrower band that could actually be studied, Lockheed Martin said. “It would be irresponsible for the Commission to accept any future agenda item for mobile broadband that neither limits the breadth of the scope nor places protection of existing users as one of its highest priorities.”