The Utilities Technology Council told the FCC it's asking to see the “underlying data and algorithms” from studies of 6 GHz interference done at the universities of Michigan and Notre Dame, said a filing posted Friday in docket 18-195. The tests showed minimal interference risks for incumbents (see 2307240025) in comparison to tests by FirstEnergy and others (see 2308010063). UTC called for a comparison of the academic findings with the results from multiple real-world interference tests done by several incumbent licensees and engineering firms and submitted in the FCC’s proceeding on unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band. The National Science Foundation funded the academic tests.

The potential that a very-low-power device would interfere with a fixed-service receiver in the 6 GHz band is “incredibly remote and requires a chain of improbable coincidences,” said a lawyer for Apple, Broadcom, Google and Meta Platforms in a filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 18-295. HWG’s Paul Caritj said he met with Ira Keltz, deputy chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology. “Given that the typical user is indoors more than 90% of the time, this already reduces the risk significantly,” the filing said: “The device must be in an unusual location where harmful interference is even theoretically possible. Due to the off-axis discrimination of FS antennas and the fact that FS links are designed to operate high off the ground to avoid buildings, terrain, and clutter, this requires either VLP operation very close to an FS receiver, or an anomalous FS link whose beam intersects the ground.” The FS link must also be operating on the same channel as the VLP device, the filing said.

Nineteen groups, led by the Open Technology Institute at New America, sent a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday urging the agency to wrap up work on two long-standing issues raised in a 2020 Further NPRM on the 6 GHz band (see 2004230059). The letter cites digital inclusion concerns. “The authorization of Very Low Power (VLP) devices and higher power for indoor-only use (LPI) are particularly crucial for digital equity and inclusion, for continued U.S. leadership in next generation Wi-Fi, and for virtually all consumers, businesses and community anchor institutions that increasingly rely on Wi-Fi for connectivity,” the letter said: “Above all, we need to ensure that final rules for the 6 GHz band do not create a new Wi-Fi Digital Divide.” The letter warns, “Weak indoor signals and any unnecessary reliance on costly and complex database control over Wi-Fi and other unlicensed technologies will disproportionately deprive low-income households, students and others of affordable access to this advanced connectivity.” Some expect FCC action soon (see 2306230046). Groups signing the letter include Public Knowledge, Consumer Reports, Next Century Cities, the American Library Association, the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, the Schools Health Libraries Broadband Coalition, the Tribal Digital Village Network, the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the Wireless ISP Association, the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, Access Humboldt, X-Lab and the Institute for Local Self Reliance.

Electric utility representatives, led by FirstEnergy and the Edison Electric Institute, met with FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff about FirstEnergy’s recent 6 GHz interference tests (see 2305100047). Electric companies “operate 6 GHz communications networks that are necessary for the safety of electric company personnel and to maintain the backbone of electric companies’ operations during emergencies and disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295: “Protecting existing 6 GHz networks remains the reason for electric companies to invest their limited resources to conduct tests to evaluate the risk that unlicensed devices pose to their networks.”

AT&T opposed a recent waiver request by Extreme Weather of FCC rules for low-power indoor devices for 6 GHz access points (APs), to be installed exclusively in indoor-only sports venues. The company wants to protect the APs with a waterproof enclosure “to protect the devices from beverage spills and during venue washing,” said a July 21 waiver request in docket 18-295. “As a general matter, access points in the 6 GHz band must operate using an automated frequency coordination system to avoid interference with primary Fixed Service microwave incumbents in the band,” though an exception is for points “limited to indoor operation,” which are governed by form-factor rules including that “devices cannot be weather resistant,” AT&T said, posted Tuesday. The waiver “should be denied because the form factor rules are a key component of the regulatory scheme protecting primary FS incumbents and Extreme has not justified undermining those safeguards,” AT&T said.

NCTA urged the FCC to reject a warning by FirstEnergy and other electric utilities of interference risks for incumbents in the 6 GHz band as more Wi-Fi users take advantage of the spectrum (see 2305100047). “In a series of untimely attempts to convince the Commission to reverse key aspects of the landmark 6 GHz Order, the Utilities Incumbents nonetheless persist in testing [low-power indoor] access points in unrealistic scenarios engineered to yield harmful interference results,” said a filing posted Monday in docket 18-295: “In doing so, the Utilities Incumbents contend that the forced results of their contrived, worst-case-scenario testing -- precisely the analytical approach the Commission rejected in the 6 GHz Order -- somehow reflect ‘real world’ risk.”

Allocating the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use can help cut overall energy use relative to using carrier networks, argues a new study by WIK, released by the Wi-Fi Alliance Monday. European nations are considering whether to follow the U.S. lead and allocate the full 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi, and a key decision on the spectrum is expected at the World Radiocommunication Conference, which starts Nov. 20 in Dubai.

Representatives of Google and Qualcomm addressed questions from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology on the possibility of subjecting very-low-power (VLP) devices to exclusion zones in the 6 GHz band, as proposed by some band incumbents. “If the Commission were to require some system of exclusion zones, it could ensure that VLP exclusion zones would be no larger than a 6 GHz automated frequency coordination system would have computed for a device at the same power level,” said a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-295. “At the very least these exclusion zones should account for 3 dB of polarization mismatch loss, up to 3 dB of feeder loss (depending on the Fixed-Service radio), and a Fixed-Service receiver noise figure of 4.0-4.5 dB, depending on frequency,” they said. The FCC proposed in an April 2020 Further NPRM to allow VLP devices to operate in the band indoors without use of AFC (see 2306230046).

PCTEL announced release of a new tri-band omnidirectional antenna targeting industrial IoT, enterprise and mining customers. “PCTEL’s new tri-band antenna platform offers top-of-the-line performance in a rugged, low-profile design and can operate in the full Wi-Fi 7 frequency range, allowing simultaneous support of multiple Wi-Fi standards in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands,” the company said Wednesday.

Representatives of Apple and Broadcom proposed rule tweaks for very low-power operations in the 6 GHz band, in a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. They also spoke with a staffer from the Office of Engineering and Technology. The FCC proposed in an April 2020 Further NPRM to allow VLP devices to operate in the band indoors without automated frequency control (see 2306230046). “In order to reduce the already insignificant risk of harmful interference even further … we discussed that the Commission could take two further steps,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-295. The FCC could create a transmit power control (TPC) rule for VLP equipment “that contains a specific and measurable power-reduction mandate,” the filing said: “Such a rule could state that TPC shall, on average, reduce the PSD [power spectral density] of the VLP device by 3 dB, compared to the maximum permitted PSD of VLP devices. The Commission would then permit VLP equipment makers to demonstrate during the FCC device certification process that a particular VLP device complies with this rule in order to receive authorization to operate at the maximum permitted” PSD. The FCC could also prohibit VLP devices from operating as part of a fixed outdoor installation, Apple and Broadcom said: “By doing so, the Commission would ensure that all VLP operations would be itinerant, not operating at any one set place and in any one set orientation to a FS receiver.”