Shortwave Modernization Coalition Updates FCC on Proposed NPRM

Shortwave Modernization Coalition (SMC) representatives told the FCC the group met with other federal agencies about the group’s proposal that the commission launch a rulemaking to amend eligibility and technical rules for industrial/business pool licensees to authorize licensed use of frequencies above 2 MHz and below 25 MHz for fixed, long-distance, non-voice communications (see 2305010053). The proposal has faced pushback, particularly from amateur radio operators (see 2308180033). SMC met with spectrum officials at NTIA “and based on those discussions reached out to several federal spectrum users and were successful in having meetings with the spectrum staff” at NASA, NOAA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Coast Guard, a filing posted Monday in RM-11953 said. SMC “explained that the shortwave band has been used for nearly nine years through multiple experimental licenses granted to several parties, and that multi-year experience mirrors the use that would be authorized by the pending proposal.”