DC Circuit Upholds 2020 5.9 GHz Order

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Friday upheld the FCC’s 2020 5.9 GHz order, allocating 45 MHz of the band for Wi-Fi and 30 MHz for cellular vehicle-to-everything technology. In January oral argument, judges appeared sympathetic to the FCC in a case brought by ITS America and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

“We agree that the FCC does not control intelligent transportation systems,” said the decision by Judge Justin Walker. “But it has a statutory duty to allocate the spectrum to its best use,” he wrote: “Figuring out how much of the spectrum is needed to support a particular activity is exactly what the FCC does. Sometimes that involves analyzing the technical features of a spectrum use to figure out what range is actually needed, as the FCC did here.”