Further NPRM on Future of 5.9 GHz Band, Sharing With Wi-Fi, Unlikely Soon
FCC action on the 5.9 GHz band appears unlikely until at least November. The Department of Transportation appears to be digging in to defend the use of the band for safety alone, opposing sharing with Wi-Fi. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai told the Wi-Fi World Congress in May the commission would soon take another look at the spectrum (see 1905140050). Pai was expected to circulate a Further NPRM that month but pulled it after Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao objected (see 1906180072). The band is for dedicated short-range communications.
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Career staffers at DOT have been fighting to preserve the band for DSRC and are now calling 5.9 GHz the “safety” band. A DOT official last week opposed sharing (see 1909100063). The 5G Automotive Association and others asked the FCC to approve waiver allowing vehicle-to-everything technology (C-V2X) (see 1905030045). The commission is expected to instead seek broader comment. The FCC and DOT didn’t comment Monday.
Brad Templeton, technologist and autonomous vehicles expert, said publicly (see 1909110064) last week what many have suggested privately. Politics are complicated for Pai because Chao is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the chairman's initial sponsor for an FCC seat, Templeton said.
“We are concerned that the FCC has not started another" FNPRM, said Deborah Collier, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) director-technology and telecom policy. “It’s in the best interest for us to take a second look at this band, make sure that while safety has to be a priority, that it’s not pigeon-holing the technology in that band.” The rules aren’t “technology neutral,” Collier told us. “The best use for DSRC is in platooning trucks. You can’t have a few vehicles on the road relying [on] this technology when the vast majority of the vehicles don’t have this technology built in.”
“This spectrum is very valuable,” said Rikin Thakker, University of Maryland lecturer in electrical and computer engineering. “The FCC is moving quickly on mid-band spectrum like 3.5 GHz,” but the 5.9 GHz band has been a “big battle,” Thakker said. Can the band be divided, with 35 MHz allocated to safety and Wi-Fi allowed in the rest of the 75 MHz band, he asked. “The DSRC, in general, if it’s just talking to cars and the surroundings, that needs to be updated.”
Kristian Stout, International Center for Law and Economics associate director, is “sympathetic” to DOT and auto industry concerns about having dedicated space for safety communications: “But it’s hard to see how they are suddenly going to move on providing innovation in that band that they haven’t [been] in the last 20 years.” That “there is unlicensed spectrum just beneath it and will possibly be new unlicensed right above it at 6 GHz means that it might not even be as effective for a dedicated safety communications channel anymore,” he said: “It seems like the FCC should move forward and consider allowing actual utilization.”
“Warehousing 75 MHz of prime spectrum without public comment and a determination of how much is actually needed for real-time auto safety applications would completely contradict FCC spectrum management principles,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America: “Years ago, the European Union decided that 30 megahertz is all that’s needed, yet DOT is paralyzed by what appears to be a combination of indecision and reflexive obeisance to industry demands to keep control of the entire band.”
“If the 5.9 GHz band had an easy solution, it would have been done years ago,” said Doug Brake, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation director-broadband and spectrum policy. “Wi-Fi wants clean access to wide channels, which would go a long way toward fueling Wi-Fi 6,” he said: “DSRC has a lot of non-safety applications that would be ideally run through general purpose technology. But any rebanding or other significant change will set back the autos years with additional testing. Someone will be unhappy with any route forward.” The FCC should make a decision “sooner rather than later, allowing everyone to work around it,” Brake said. Meanwhile, C-V2X testing is ongoing in Michigan and “perhaps once more information is available about that technology and its momentum with industry, the path forward will be clearer,” he said.
Everyone allocating a band of spectrum for a specific technology, rather than a specific type of service, is “ridiculous” and it's time for FNPRM, said Tom Struble, R Street technology policy manager. “Even the auto industry and DOT need the FCC to reexamine its rules for the 5.9 GHz band, given the development of C-V2X and some automakers' preference for that technology over DSRC." Struble said DOT likely sought a delay so it and the auto industry “can gather the empirical research necessary to convince the FCC that 5.9 GHz should remain dedicated to auto safety."
Intelligent Transportation Society of America says V2X technology is being deployed in “more than 30 states and dozens of cities.” Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested, so the band is being used, the tech group says.