Intel continues to favor allocating additional spectrum at 5 GHz for unlicensed use and maximizing the amount of spectrum for unlicensed in the TV band, said Peter Pitsch, executive director-communications policy, in a meeting with Jeffrey Neumann, aide to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai. Intel favors a band plan for 600 MHz spectrum with seven pairs of wireless licenses offered for sale if possible, Pitsch said, said an ex parte filing from the company. “The licensees in the top markets, if they unanimously agree, should be able to make band plan changes after the auction closes,” he said. “The FCC should consider setting nationwide reservation prices for the guard band and duplex gap based on its assessment of the societal value of unlicensed use of these bands and put the guard band and duplex gap out for bid. If the total bids exceeded the respective reservation price, then the guard band or duplex gap would be licensed, otherwise, they would be unlicensed.” Other companies have been lobbying the FCC in recent days on Wi-Fi and unlicensed spectrum (CD Feb 6 p17).

The FCC should dedicate more spectrum in the 600 MHz and 5 GHz bands for unlicensed use, Wi-Fi Alliance officials said in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. In the 600 MHz band, the FCC should make four 6 MHz channels available to take advantage of legacy 20 MHz-wide Wi-Fi standards, alliance representatives said, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1b1JaY3). “The Wi-Fi Alliance noted that there has been little use of the spectrum dedicated for white spaces operation because of the uncertainty regarding the future use of the 600 MHz band."

The FCC continues to urge that the entire UHF band be “globally harmonized” to allow mobile broadband in addition to broadcast TV, Robert Nelson, chief engineer at the FCC International Bureau, said at the Americas Spectrum Management Conference Thursday. The proposal has been controversial, with broadcasters raising red flags.

Spectrum sharing is the “new reality” and is the only way U.S. industry and government agencies will be able to meet their long-term spectrum needs, said NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling Tuesday at a joint NTIA-National Institute of Standards and Technology event. Strickling and members of other federal agencies highlighted the importance of developing new technologies to make spectrum sharing as effective as possible. He urged stakeholders not to dismiss spectrum sharing as a “perfectly hopeless notion,” noting that in the 1920s then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover predicted that wireless telecom would work only as a means for mass communication, not for individual conversation. “Hoover failed miserably at predicting the future of wireless communications and the lesson we should all draw from that is that none of us will ever quite know where technology will take us in the end,” Strickling said.

Oct. 28 FCC monthly meeting, 11:30 a.m., rescheduled from Oct. 22, Commission Meeting Room -- http://fcc.us/1gqLlbQ

The Satellite Industry Association repeated that the FCC grant spectrum allocation changes for federal earth station facilities, but that there isn’t a need “to adopt a co-primary non-Federal allocation in frequencies currently available for launch operations,” in reply comments in docket 13-115 (http://bit.ly/16UH9Gz). The proceeding is to determine whether federal earth stations are to have full protection from interference when operating with commercial satellites (CD May 6 p5). The FCC should adopt SIA’s proposal for enhancing the current status of federal earth stations, it said: Because the FCC would have sole regulatory authority over the space segment of satellite systems operating in the fixed satellite services and mobile satellite services bands, “it can establish conclusively at the outset that its rules will apply to federal government operations, and that the bands will not be shared for regulatory purposes.” Boeing suggested that, to improve non-federal operators’ access to launch spectrum, the FCC should issue two-year experimental licenses instead of six-month special temporary authorizations, it said (http://bit.ly/GzJEIK). The company agreed it isn’t necessary for the FCC to re-engineer the current process by introducing a new co-primary non-federal allocation and associated rules, it said. Engineers for the Integrity of Broadcast Auxiliary Services Spectrum agreed with Comsearch’s concern that federal use of the extended satellite bands “should not be upgraded from secondary to co-primary, because these bands are extensively used by point-to-point terrestrial microwave stations,” it said (http://bit.ly/16e9onZ). Allowing federal downlinks in these bands that were no longer secondary “would give those sites super primary status because of the commission policy of protecting downlinks on all possible channels and all possible look angles,” EIBASS said. The group objects to allowing federal stations co-primary status in the extended Ku-band segment of 10.7-11.7 GHz, which is heavily used by Part 101 terrestrial FSS stations, it said. The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition doesn’t object to federal access to non-federal satellite spectrum as long as federal users comply with all established frequency coordination procedures and industry practices, it said (http://bit.ly/171vIhd). FWCC supported Comsearch’s proposals, including requiring federal earth station users seeking to operate in shared non-federal bands to follow the same frequency coordination procedures and industry best practices currently required for non-federal users, it said. The FCC also should delete the extended Ku downlink band “from its proposed policy to provide federal earth stations with protected status, so as to preserve the 10.7-11.7 GHz band for badly needed FSS links,” it said.

The first casualties of a federal government shutdown likely will be events, including hearings on Capitol Hill, slated for this week, unless the House and Senate work out a deal that would put off a shutdown that was slated to start at midnight Monday. Bigger problems loom, including potential delays in Senate action on the nominations of Tom Wheeler and Michael O'Rielly as members of the FCC, industry officials said. NTIA has already canceled one high-profile event slated for next week.

Verizon and AT&T will spread their wireless competition to LTE video services in 2014 using recently acquired spectrum, said their chief executives Tuesday at a Goldman Sachs investor conference in New York. The carriers are lining up content deals, and Verizon expects to deliver the Super Bowl to subscribers in February, CEO Lowell McAdam said. AT&T will begin deployments by mid-2014 and expects the service will “mature to scale” within three years, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson told us.

The U.K. Office of Communications wants input on spectrum sharing in the mobile broadband and machine-to-machine (M2M) sectors, it said in a consultation begun Friday (http://xrl.us/bpm79s). Spectrum is expected to become scarcer in those sectors due to continued, and potentially increased, demand for wireless services and connectivity, it said. One way to meet the demand is to clear spectrum to make way for mobile broadband services, and there are initiatives under way in that area, it said. In the long run, it will become harder to find significant amounts of additional spectrum to clear, and spectrum sharing could be a partial solution, it said. The consultation addresses four main spectrum sharing issues: (1) Supporting future Wi-Fi use. The issue is whether more spectrum in the 5 GHz band may be needed to provide higher speed connections to match those offered by rollout of fixed superfast broadband and to support the growing use of Wi-Fi to offload mobile data and create indoor networks. (2) Boosting the future supply of spectrum for mobile broadband and M2M using spectrum shared on a geographic basis. Geographical access to unused spectrum in some existing bands could be well suited for use by the increasing number of small cells likely to be needed in high-demand urban areas. Sharing spectrum there could give access to more than several hundred MHz of additional spectrum in highly desirable bands below 6 GHz. (3) Using dynamic spectrum access to improve sharing between devices. Advances in dynamic spectrum access technologies could let devices make more intelligent decisions about how to operate in a given location to minimize interference. (4) Shorter-term access to shared spectrum to support research and development. Ofcom currently makes spectrum available under R&D licenses on the basis of specific requests, it said. But R&D sharing arrangements could be agreed upon with current users of the applicable spectrum, allowing spectrum to be accessible by, for example, a geolocation database, it said. Comments are due Nov. 9 -- http://bit.ly/198kPgs.

FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Ruth Milkman defended a May 17 public notice seeking more information on a 600 MHz band plan following the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, saying the notice merely explores issues on which the agency needed additional comment. The notice proved controversial and was the hot topic at the CTIA annual meeting held the week after the notice was published (CD May 24 p1).