On February 28, 2022, The Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) filed Comments in response to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking intended to “further Congressional goals of diversifying access to spectrum and promoting service to rural areas…” EWA supports the objective of providing incentives for licensees to partition, disaggregate, and/or lease unused spectrum to small carriers, rural carriers, and Tribal Nations including license term and construction extensions. EWA also urged the FCC to adopt a different base line for determining construction compliance for private enterprise entities noting that population and geographic coverage requirements are misapplied for private wireless internal communication systems. EWA also requested that the FCC modify its rules to permit the leasing of exclusive-use Part 90 UHF and VHF licenses.
“This proceeding holds much promise for rural America and may also be used to amend some long overdue administrative encumbrances relating to operational compliance and spectrum leasing opportunities,” said EWA President and Chief Executive Officer Robin J. Cohen.