Senate FY23 NDAA Eyes Assessing NTIA Law's Effects on DOD Spectrum Access

The Senate Armed Services Committee’s FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act includes language seeking “an assessment of the implications of” provisions in the NTIA Organization Act “on DOD's access to the electromagnetic spectrum and resources,” the committee said Thursday. Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen, meanwhile, is urging the aviation industry to “move with all due haste to protect the fleet against known vulnerabilities to 5G C-band interference” and install “radio frequency filters” on altimeters before the July 5 expiration of the AT&T-Verizon agreement to use exclusion zones on their commercial C-band operations (see 2201030063).

Senate Armed Services’ proposed NTIA statute assessment is targeted at sections of the law directing the agency to recommend reallocating current federal-controlled spectrum and establishing the Spectrum Relocation Fund. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, last week criticized efforts to include language in NDAA that would hinder NTIA's spectrum coordination role (see 2206090072). The FY23 NDAA would direct a “strategic next-generation warfighter electromagnetic spectrum roadmap to provide recommendations to address the spectrum-related operational needs to support the mission of the DOD,” Armed Services said. Other language in the measure would authorize “an increase of $200 million for 5G technology development, experimentation, and transition support, including open radio access network (O-RAN) efforts.”

Wireless carriers “have signaled an openness to continuing voluntary signal-strength mitigations around a number of critical airports,” Nolan told airlines in a letter released Thursday. “However, they also have indicated a desire to press forward within certain markets beginning in July. As you know from the technical discussions, when this happens, less capable aircraft that now have Alternate Methods of Compliance for these airports will be unable to access them without filter retrofits.” The FAA “is in the early stages of working with AT&T and Verizon to identify markets where either a new tower or an increase in signal power will cause the least disruption, but there are no guarantees that all large markets will retain the current mitigations,” he said: “We hope to have more details” at a Friday roundtable meeting.

Aviation industry stakeholders in previous meetings “identified a pathway to retrofit the first two groups of aircraft with the most vulnerable radio altimeters by the end of 2022,” Nolan said: “We are working toward an equally aggressive schedule that would necessitate the completion of retrofits for the third and largest group in 2023.” Some “operators have begun these retrofits,” but “some stakeholders have raised concerns that some aircraft might eventually have to undergo additional retrofits,” he said.

“The wireless companies assure us that the equipment capable of transmitting at the maximum power levels approved by the FCC is still being developed and will not be ready for widespread use for three to five years,” Nolan said: “However, without additional action by the FCC to cap transmissions at currently attainable power levels, the prospect of additional disruption remains and we are not in any position to offer assurances.” Verizon and AT&T “plan to pursue a full rollout of their networks by the end of 2023,” he said: “Another 19 companies licensed by the FCC are expected to enter the market during that timeframe, hopefully employing some level of the voluntary mitigations that have enabled our progress so far.”