FCC Staff Weighing Spectrum Frontiers Revisitation Calls by Satellite
FCC bureau staff still is going through satellite industry arguments and opponent counterarguments for revisiting spectrum frontiers rules and likely will have a list of options to present to Chairman Ajit Pai within a couple of weeks, agency staff and proceeding insiders told us.
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There's no strong sense of how the eighth floor is leaning on the petition issues, said a lawyer with wireless clients. Spectrum frontiers approval was a 5-0 commissioner vote, but that was a high-level decision and the issues raised in the satellite reconsideration petitions (see 1612160019) are far more granular and technical, the lawyer said. The lawyer said there hasn't been big mobilization by 5G interests to push back on the satellite efforts, but that's likely coming. That 5-0 vote also doesn't mean there's not a willingness to make tweaks, said a satellite industry official, adding it's not clear where Pai stands.
Satellite interests have met repeatedly in recent weeks with bureau staff and commissioners' offices to push for such changes as looser population coverage limits and elimination of rules limiting fixed satellite service operators to three earth stations per geographic region (see 1703280068). Spectrum frontiers' earth station siting rules "have potential to lead to results that are neither consistent with the objectives of UMFUS [upper microwave flexible use system] development or the future plans of the Satellite Broadband companies," a group of satellite companies told International Bureau staff including Satellite Division Chief Jose Albuquerque, said a docket 14-177 ex parte filing posted Thursday. Attendees included EchoStar Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Manner, Inmarsat Director-Regulatory Giselle Creeser, SES Senior Legal and Regulatory Counsel Petra Vorwig, O3b Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Suzanne Malloy, Intelsat Manager-Spectrum Policy, Americas Counsel Alexander Gerdenitsch and OneWeb Vice President-International Regulatory and Policy Affairs Tony Azzarelli. The proposals are "very reasonable for both [upper microwave flexible use systems] and satellite," Manner said.
“Next-generation satellite broadband systems provide the FCC with the long-sought solution for closing the digital divide," Boeing emailed us. The company said it "has shown that with well-crafted regulations, the FCC can lay the foundation for robust development of new satellite broadband systems -- a win-win for U.S. consumers and U.S. technology leadership." The company in an ex parte filing posted April 3 recapped a meeting with Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in which it said the existing 0.1 percent population coverage limit in densely populated areas would unduly limit earth stations in rural partial economic areas (PEAs) and instead advocated a tiered approach -- strict limits in populous PEAs but a higher though still low percentage in rural ones. Boeing told O'Rielly a cap of three earth stations per PEA is too small to accommodate multiple V-band satellite constellations.
The satellite efforts are seeing some terrestrial pushback. Nextlink Wireless said 5G deployments would be undermined by proposed siting rules for fixed satellite service (FSS) earth stations in the 28 GHz band since those rules would "create de facto primary rights" in the band. In a filing posted Thursday, Nextlink said the FCC should maintain existing limits on FSS earth station operations in transient population areas, maintain the limit on three FSS earth stations per county in the 28 GHz band, and reject the satellite-pushed idea of tiered access for the 70, 80 and 90 GHz bands for UMFUS.