The C-band clearing plan proposed by Intelsat/Intel/SES and Ligado's terrestrial low-power broadband service (TLPS) proposal both involve reallocating satellite spectrum, but the proceedings differ widely on the details, and FCC activity on the former doesn't necessarily mean anything forthcoming on the latter, said spectrum and satellite experts. Both are part of a broader trend of satellite spectrum being repurposed for terrestrial broadband use, with struggling satellite companies often at the forefront of that, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America.

FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, appearing together at a WifiForward event, agreed the FCC needs to make more spectrum available for Wi-Fi. Both expressed impatience with the slow pace of opening the 5.9 GHz band for sharing with Wi-Fi. O’Rielly said later he doesn’t have a firm timetable for the release of proposed rules for the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band.

An auction of priority access licenses (PAL) in the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band may not happen until late next year, Mark Gibson, senior director-business development at CommScope, told the National Spectrum Managers Association Wednesday at its annual meeting. Fletcher Heald attorney Mitchell Lazarus warned the FCC is making more decisions based on politics rather than engineering.

A group of companies pursuing unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band filed a letter at the FCC in support of a report by RKF Engineering Solutions the companies say shows the band can be opened without harmful interference to incumbents (see 1801260043). “By demonstrating that potential interference between RLAN [radio local area network] devices and FS [fixed service] is confined to only specific, rare situations, and ruling out the possibility of widespread aggregate interference to FS, the RKF Study has narrowed the appropriate technical discussion to two discrete issues,” said Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ruckus Networks. “Under what circumstances will RLAN operation within the main beam of an FS link pose a substantial risk of harmful interference?” and “What are the most appropriate mitigation measures to effectively address that risk?” the filing said. The answer to the first concern is “RKF demonstrated that even in the case of main-beam RLAN operations, RLAN devices are very unlikely to cause harmful interference to FS by materially degrading overall link reliability,” the tech companies said. On the second, “the undersigned companies have provided a framework for interference-protection rules that would segment the 6 GHz band and would allow the FCC to apply specific mitigation measures tailored to each sub-band,” said the filing, posted Monday in docket 17-183.

The Association of American Railroads expressed concerns about railroads’ ability to use the 6 GHz band for the safe operation of trains if the spectrum is opened for licensed or unlicensed mobile use. “Railroads have depended on interference-free communications systems that utilize the 6 GHz band to serve as the backbone for their communications networks for several decades,” AAR filed Monday in docket 17-183. Railroads use the band to control wayside track switches and signals and provide an ongoing view of train location, the group said. The FCC launched a notice of inquiry in August seeking comment on mid-band spectrum for 5G and other wireless broadband (see 1708030052).

Comments will be due July 6, replies Aug. 6 on an FCC Further NPRM on the 4.9 GHz public safety band. Commissioners approved the FNPRM in March (see 1803220037). “The Commission proposes several rule changes and seeks comment on alternatives with the goal of promoting increased public safety use of the band while opening up the spectrum to additional uses that will encourage a more robust market for equipment and greater innovation,” the notice said. A second notice said streamlining changes by NTIA in the coordination process enabling the FCC to grant licenses to non-federal public safety entities who seek to operate on 40 federal government interoperability channels take effect, for the most part, June 6. “Under the new process, the Statewide Interoperability Coordinator (SWIC) or state appointed official in each state is responsible for coordinating access to the federal interoperability channels by non-federal public safety entities,” the notice said. “Each SWIC/official will sign an agreement with a federal user with a valid assignment.” The part that doesn’t take effect is a new information collection that requires review by the Office of Management and Budget under the Paperwork Reduction Act.

Few carriers are likely to pursue the 2.5 GHz band, despite an NPRM teed up for a vote at Thursday’s FCC commissioners’ meeting, industry analysts and former FCC officials said. The record in docket 18-120 documents the lack of interest so far, with Sprint the only wireless industry company to weigh in.

Clarification: Aviat Networks’ letter to the FCC, showing about 180 entities endorsing its warning not to allow unlicensed users on 6 GHz spectrum (see 1804260044), only meant that individuals from those public and private organizations signed on, the company clarified. Chevron, one company listed that returned our request for comment, said it only endorsed the filing through a member vote in the American Petroleum Institute Telecommunications Subcommittee.

States, localities, utilities and big companies signed an Aviat Networks letter warning the FCC not to allow unlicensed users on 6 GHz spectrum. The list included Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Northrop Grumman, Chevron, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. In a letter posted Wednesday in docket 17-183, CEO Michael Pangia disagreed with a January study by RKF Engineering Solutions for Apple, Facebook, Google and other tech companies. The study said the band can be shared with no downside (see 1804130061). "The 6GHz band is the work horse of the fixed link world in the United States," Pangia wrote. "No other band can support such long links at such high availability." It provides critical communications for public safety and national infrastructure, the CEO said. Unlicensed or unregistered radio LANs can't coexist with licensed fixed links and "it would be virtually impossible for the FCC to locate any sources of interference" to protect the licensed links, he said. Aviat included endorsing quotes from EcliptixNet Broadband, Marcus Communications, Occidental Petroleum and Tusa Consulting.

Intelsat, Intel and SES are pitching to the FCC details of how their proposed clearing of 100 MHz of C-band spectrum for terrestrial mobile use might work. The three said in a meeting with Wireless and International bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology and Office of Strategic Planning representatives that 100 MHz, plus a transition band, could be cleared in 18 to 36 months after an FCC order, and that terrestrial demand for such midband spectrum could result in more being cleared in the future, said a docket 17-183 filing posted Monday. Such additional clearing would have to protect Intelsat and SES customers and businesses, they said, saying not all C-band satellites are fungible and the satellites used for video distribution are heavily used. They said after an order, the C-band consortium would start on market-based selections and negotiation of secondary market agreements, with that process taking up to eight months. Once the agreements are done, the prospective mobile licensees would file license applications, with grant conditioned on full release of agreement funds in escrow. The companies estimated time from filing to grant could take up to seven months. Grant of the mobile licenses would trigger payment of the clearing costs by the licensees to the consortium, with that consortium launching the clearing process, taking up to 20 months. After clearing, payments would be provided from the escrow to the consortium, with an FCC public notice removing the payment condition from the coordinated mobile licenses. The companies also challenged the Broadband Access Coalition push to allow terrestrial point-to-multipoint co-frequency sharing in the 3.7-4.2 GHz band (see 1706210044), saying it doesn't make sense to clear the spectrum for 5G mobile use while also bringing in other fixed operations by BAC members that will impair the spectrum for mobile operations. They said moving BAC's proposal to the 6 GHz band could cause less disruption to satellite services. Among those meeting were Wireless Bureau Chief Don Stockdale, IB Chief Tom Sullivan and OET Chief Julius Knapp. BAC counsel didn't comment. An NPRM on the C-band clearing proposal is expected by some this summer (see 1804200003).