In an ex parte letter, the Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) affirmed its support of rules on license renewal and discontinuance of operations protocols proposed in a draft Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Second Report and Order (Order). EWA specifically urged the Commission to reconsider its decision to exempt Public Safety entities from the obligations referenced in the Order. Should the Commission proceed to exempt public safety licensees from certifying the accuracy of their operations at time of license renewal and from the obligation to notify the FCC when any portion of their licensed service is permanently discontinued, EWA asked how it would be possible to rely on the validity of the FCC’s Universal License Service database regarding actual public safety spectrum use.
If the FCC proceeds as planned, EWA urged the FCC to reject as insufficiently supported, all future public safety waiver requests that seek use of Industrial/Business channels. “Public safety requests to access Industrial/Business are pursued in part, on assertions that there is no public safety allocated spectrum available for a public safety applicant. Without public safety’s participation as a spectrum steward, assertions that there is no available public safety spectrum are essentially baseless,” stated EWA President Mark Crosby.