Enterprise Wireless Insider® Volume 7, Issue 7

FCC Leadership Changes

In the earlier days of the FCC, there were seven Commissioners governing the affairs of the agency. Not that long ago, the number was reduced to five Commissioners, which has seemed to be more than adequate to regulate America’s communications affairs. With Chairman Genachowski and Commissioner McDowell announcing their departure, the FCC’s work will still get done with only three Commissioners.  What is important to the White House, however, is that the majority of the FCC Commissioners share the same party affiliation. With that objective in mind, it may take a couple more months to identify and confirm Democratic and Republican replacements, more than likely, at the same time.  

6.25 kHz Narrowband Deadline at 700 MHz - Is 2016 Too Soon?

Initially, someone or several influential parties, must have thought it was a good idea to require 700 MHz public safety narrowband spectrum to be available only on 6.25 kHz channel bandwidths by December 1, 2016. Evidently, this is no longer the case.  The FCC is now seeking comments on eliminating the December 1, 2016, 6.25 kHz narrowbanding deadline for 700 MHz public safety licenses.  FCC Order

Complicated License Assignments

EWA does not normally participate in license assignment matters, unless there is a decision that will be made that may have long term consequences for the management and enforcement of Part 90 spectrum. In this case, the FCC is seeking comments regarding Maritime Communications/Land Mobile, LLC’s desire to assign geographic and site-based Automated Maritime Telecommunications Service licenses in the 217-218/219-220 MHz band to Choctaw Holdings, LLC.  The issue that has EWA paying attention is Choctaw’s request to waive applicable construction and discontinuance-of-service rules for 59 site-based AMTS stations.  Rules within Part 90 are clear that if a station has not been constructed or has not been operational for a period of one year, that station license automatically terminates.  These are good rules to promote spectrum efficiency that need to be enforced under normal circumstances.

VHF and UHF Auction Procedures Outlines

EWA has been alerting its members of this spectrum opportunity for the past several weeks, and now the timing is official. The FCC released information concerning filing requirements, upfront payments and other procedures for the next round of Part 22 “lower and upper paging band” licenses. The auction is scheduled for July 16, 2013. If you would like to know what channels are being auctioned in your area, please contact Nancy Gruen of EWA at 703-797-5147.

Auction 95 - Auction of Lower and Upper Paging Bands Licenses:

DA 13-535 Attachment A - Part 1.
DA 13-535 Attachment A - Part 2.
DA 13-535 Exhibit 1.
 

Finally - 800 MHz Mexican Border Band Plan Established

It took a while, but 800 MHz licensees located along the U.S.-Mexican border may now proceed with reconfiguring their 800 MHz systems now that the FCC has released the ground rules in a Fifth Report and Order. The new plan required an agreement to modify the international 800 MHz allocation in that region.

FCC Schedules Auction of Federal Government Spectrum

Spectrum, a lot of it, is needed to feed commercial broadband requirements, and Federal Government spectrum is on the auction block again. The FCC notified the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of its plan to auction licenses in the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1780 MHz bands by September 2014. Per the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act, NTIA is now required to notify the Commission of estimated relocation and sharing costs at least six months before the auction. The Act dictates that spectrum between the 1675 MHz and 1710 MHz is scheduled to be reallocated from federal to commercial use and be licensed by February 2015.  FCC Letter

Commission Updating RF Exposure Guidelines

In a matter EWA will be watching closely, the FCC has announced in a Notice of Inquiry that it plans to update its guidelines governing human exposure to RF electromagnetic fields. Among other topics, the Commission asked for comments on new proposals to determine whether “single or multiple fixed, mobile, or portable RF sources are subject to routine evaluation for compliance with the RF exposure limits or are exempted from such evaluations.” 

Sanity Prevails - TIA Issues New IS Standard

There is now a responsible, competitive alternative to the revised “Intrinsically Safe” (IS) standards that were announced in late 2010 by FM Approvals which were almost universally opposed by the land mobile industry. The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) standard, which was approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) answers the concerns expressed by public safety organizations, LMCC, API, EWA and others. The TIA standard provides technical information related to the design, manufacturing, and testing of battery-powered land mobile radio equipment that are normally hand carried or worn on employees. The new standards for these radio devices would make them incapable of being a source of ignition in “Division 1” Hazardous (Classified) locations as defined in Article 500 of the National Electric Code (NEC) NFPA -70.  This new TIA standard relied heavily upon contributions by Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.

Digital/Analog Coordination Best Practices Recommended; EWA Will Implement

With more and more licensees converting systems from analog to digital technology, the potential for incompatibility between systems in shared spectrum environments is increasing.  This is especially the case if licensees are unfamiliar with system capabilities, install system features that are not authorized or, simply fail to consider the impact that their systems may have on other legitimate licensees. With these issues in mind, and with the FCC’s support, the Land Mobile Communications Council recently submitted its recommendation on “Digital/Analog Frequency Coordination Best Practices” to the Commission.  Comments and suggestions for improvement to these Best Practices from the Commission were requested, including from the Enforcement Bureau. While these procedures are not mandatory on the part of the FCC’s certified frequency advisory committees, at least for now, EWA will be instituting these procedures and advisory initiatives as soon as its automated spectrum advisory systems may be updated.

EWA Weighs T-Band Options for Industrial/Business

With absolutely no assurances that comparable spectrum and funding from auctions may be identified in sufficient quantities to accommodate public safety’s mandated relocation from T-Band, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council (NPSTC) recently released a study predicting that it will take $5.9 billion dollars to satisfy this legislative spectrum quid pro quo. Those on Capitol Hill who still believe that public safety was or is not a substantial user of T-Band, and that the 700 MHz for 470-512 MHz spectrum exchange therefore still makes sense, are still wrong. Of course, EWA is obligated to defend the spectrum rights of the Industrial/Business and private carrier T-Band incumbent licensees that represent 40% of the total private land mobile T-Band space. And while public safety may have access to comparable spectrum alternatives in some but not all T-Band markets, there is no comparable spectrum available for Industrial/Business entities to move to, if these entities continue to be absorbed within this public safety spectrum reallocation mess. With no comparable spectrum alternatives, an analysis similar to that conducted by NPSTC for Industrial/Business interests is a futile exercise. The only viable alternative is to stay somewhere within T-Band, which has been suggested by the FCC. Reasonable estimates of the costs to relocate within T-Band can be provided, but issues like who pays and when still need to be discussed and identified. And then again, there are no guarantees that Industrial/Business will be given the opportunity to relocate to alternative T-Band spectrum. The NPSTC study can be found on NPSTC’s website. 

Reducing Private Carrier Regulatory Obligations

It is EWA’s opinion that non-interconnected private carrier systems should not be obligated to comply with requirements that are specifically directed at telecommunication service/common carrier systems in order to comply with Customer Proprietary Network Information and, more recently, the FCC’s “Accessibility Recordkeeping Compliance” rules.  In a recent letter to the FCC’s Office of General Counsel, EWA provided a detailed legal analysis explaining that the Communications Act exempts non-interconnected PMRS systems from these obligations.  Although EWA believes their arguments are sound, pending an affirmative response from the General Counsel’s office, the decision to file or not to file these two certifications remains with affected EWA members.