Representatives of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association discussed the importance of the Connect America Fund, the rural broadband experiment program and the Remote Areas Fund to WISPs during a meeting with FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. “They emphasized the need for Commission rules to be adopted and applied in a technology-neutral manner that affords providers of fixed wireless broadband services a fair opportunity to participate in the rural broadband experiment program and the Remote Areas Fund,” said a filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1gioNIp).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a fine of $25,000 against Winchester Wireless, a Virginia wireless ISP, for allegedly intentionally operating radiators that don’t comply with FCC rules. In May 2011, the bureau first found that the WISP had attached two RF Linx 900 MHz amplifiers to a Motorola Canopy transmitter even though the Motorola system “is not certified for use with external amplifiers” (http://bit.ly/1ixvrOh). In May 2013, “in response to two additional complaints,” an FCC field agent inspected two transmitter sites operated by Winchester Wireless and found the same Motorola Canopy system and RF Linx equipment observed during the 2011 inspection. “Because Winchester Wireless operated its Motorola Canopy system with unauthorized amplifiers at two separate locations, we propose a $10,000 forfeiture for operation without an instrument of authorization at each location,” the bureau said. “In addition, Winchester Wireless had the same type of violation less than two years earlier. ... Winchester Wireless’s actions demonstrate a deliberate disregard for the Commission’s requirements and we therefore find a $5,000 upward adjustment in the forfeiture is warranted.” “We are currently investigating this matter with a law firm that our industry uses for FCC correspondence of this nature,” said David Williamson, owner of Winchester Wireless. “We have nothing further to report at this time until we have done our due diligence on this matter.”

GE Healthcare (GEHC) disagreed strongly with Broadcom arguments that unlicensed devices can safely share TV Channel 37 with wireless medical telemetry service (WMTS) devices without posing interference issues. Broadcom made its case in a January filing (http://bit.ly/1kHsKtz). “While medical telemetry services deserve to be protected from interference, giving undue weight to claims that are not fully substantiated could undermine the Commission’s goals in this proceeding,” Broadcom said. It disagreed with a number of GEHC’s technical claims, submitted an alternative technical analysis and suggested that unlicensed technologies can operate co-channel with, and in close spectral proximity to, Channel 37 WMTS devices without causing harmful interference, GEHC responded (http://bit.ly/1ncQFmt). “Broadcom’s analysis includes flawed assumptions about a number of key points and, as a result, should be discounted by the Commission in resolving the issues pertaining to Channel 37 in this proceeding.” Among the issues debated are GEHC’s assumptions about free-space propagation, which Broadcom said are “overly conservative in this context in light of attenuation that will necessarily occur in urban environments.” GEHC countered that argument. “The possibility of free space propagation occurring between an uncoordinated portable device and hospital receiver is undeniable,” GEHC said. “Although higher attenuation in cluttered environments may occur, it is by no means guaranteed-especially at the shorter separation distances that Broadcom suggests. In fact, with potentially millions of unlicensed devices operating, free space propagation can be expected to be a very common occurrence."

"The public interest is best served” by providing 24 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed use in the 600 MHz band plan following the TV incentive auction, said the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition in an FCC filing. The coalition, which also has included Public Knowledge, reported on a meeting between Michael Calabrese, director of the New America Foundation’s Wireless Future Project, and FCC Special Counsel Diane Cornell (http://bit.ly/1g0XeyM). While the spectrum law “imposed certain statutory guideposts,” the FCC “has the authority to allow shared unlicensed use of the guard bands, of Channel 37 and of any channels reserved for wireless microphones, all which is likely to be necessary to promote and sustain markets of national scope and scale for unlicensed chips, devices and services,” Calabrese said.

Cisco supports NCTA’s proposal to allow use of the unlicensed national information infrastructure band at up to 1 watt equivalent isotropic radiated power with an antenna gain of up to 6 dBi, said the company in an ex parte filing in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1gfhpxw). This use is acceptable provided that any outdoor base station uses an antenna “that restricts emissions more than 30 degrees above the horizontal plane, that the device is used indoors, or that the device is used for a point-to-point link,” it said. There are ongoing efforts between Wi-Fi interests and the dedicated short-range communications community “to explore ways in which unlicensed uses and DSRC can share the U-NII-4 band without subjecting DSRC to harmful interference,” it said. The filing recounts a meeting last week with staff from the offices of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly. Globalstar reiterated its support for NCTA’s latest proposal with some minor refinements and a backstop requiring the FCC “to take immediate steps to mitigate any harmful interference to Globalstar’s MSS network and customers,” it said in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1isslGN). The filing recounts teleconferences with Wheeler staff and Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering & Technology. The FCC March 31 open meeting will include a vote on an order about spectrum that’s been the subject of conflicts between Globalstar and NCTA and their allies (CD March 3 p1) OR (WID March 3 p9).

The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment on a request by Globe Wireless Radio Services for a waiver of the commission’s rules to allow the use of high frequency (HF) transmissions above 5 MHz for communications between public coast stations. Section 80.453 of agency rules allow public coast stations to provide radiotelephone and radiotelegraph service to ships and shore stations only on frequencies between .415 MHz and 5 MHz, the bureau noted. “GWRS states that in the past a large number of domestic and international coast stations provided adequate capacity for inter-station communications, but factors such as a decline in licensed public coast stations, the distance between stations, and HF propagation characteristics that are disrupted by sunspot cycles, atmospheric and seasonal conditions make it necessary to access all licensed HF frequencies to provide reliable communications between public coast stations,” the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1qpUfsy). “GWRS requests a waiver to permit it to communicate between public coast stations on authorized frequencies above 5 MHz.” Comments are due April 9, replies April 24.

The FCC should auction AWS-3 spectrum in 5 MHz rather than 10 MHz blocks if it wants to encourage small carriers to bid in the auction, the Competitive Carriers Association said in a filing at the FCC. “Auction participants can aggregate larger spectrum channels by bidding on multiple 5 x 5 blocks, but ... smaller carriers may not be able to access these blocks on a 10 x 10 basis, particularly if larger geographic license sizes are used,” CCA said (http://bit.ly/1cC6X3W).

T-Mobile representatives made their case for spectrum aggregation limits in the TV incentive auction, in a meeting with acting FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman. “The participants discussed the need for spectrum-aggregation limits, including the potential for weighting holdings in different bands to account for varying performance and competitive attributes associated with different frequencies,” said an ex parte filing on the meeting (http://bit.ly/1hTMBSA). “The participants primarily focused on the differences between above- and below-1 GHz spectrum that are well established in the record."

Many industry comments on an FCC proposal to change its wireless tower siting rules, partly in response to the 2010 spectrum law, are “problematic,” said a filing by numerous cities and local government organizations (http://bit.ly/1oxdRr3). The wireless industry is seeking changes that would streamline rules, particularly for distributed antenna systems and small cells (CD March 7 p1). “Some commenters would allow local governments to protect against safety hazards recognized in particular ordinances (building codes) yet would mandate that local governments ignore safety hazards addressed elsewhere,” the cities said. “They also would apply Section 6409(a) [of the spectrum law] much more broadly than the statute permits, and call for a Section 6409(a) enforcement scheme that would present serious constitutional problems.” Comments show “near unanimity that Section 6409(a) does not apply to a state or local government acting in a proprietary capacity, and no comment demonstrates a need for the Commission to attempt to define what is and is not proprietary,” the filing said. The local governments also said “adopting the Commission’s proposed rules in their current form would have major adverse consequences for public safety, the environment, historical structures, and local communities -- consequences that Congress could not have intended. Although the industry’s comments seem to recognize that the proposed rules, read literally, would go too far, the industry’s solutions still result in many of the same problems.”

Unlicensed spectrum touches everyone’s life, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said Friday, in remarks to Wi-Fi Forward, a group pressing for greater unlicensed use of the 5 GHz band. Rosenworcel noted estimates that residential Wi-Fi contributes $16-$37 billion to the U.S. economy every year. “It might have been the shiny new tablet or laptop you used to go online with Wi-Fi this morning,” Rosenworcel said. “Or maybe it was the old cordless phone you dusted off to make a quick call. It could have been the baby monitor you used overnight, or the television remote control you took in hand to turn on the news after you woke. Or perhaps it was the remote control you pressed to get out of the garage for your commute to work. It could have been the traffic application you checked on your smartphone before hitting the road. And it could have been the errand you ran at the store along the way, where RFID sensors help keep what you want on shelves and what you need in stock.” “Good spectrum policy” dictates that the U.S. allow for unlicensed and licensed spectrum to flourish, she said. Rosenworcel noted that she had just attended the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “I was able to speak to representatives of the wireless industry from across the globe,” she said. “I got a good look at the future -- and I saw wireless technologies that amaze. Cars that warn you even before they break down. Wearables that monitor your health down to the microsecond. Systems that monitor crops and predict problems with livestock. These devices do not rely on a single spectrum band to function. Instead, they overcome spectral and physical challenges by moving from frequency to frequency, sometimes on spectrum that is licensed and sometimes on spectrum that is unlicensed.” Rosenworcel said she is supportive of an FCC order, teed up for the March 31 commission meeting, that would allow unlicensed use of the 5.1 GHz band, also known as the Unlicensed-National Information Infrastructure-1 (U-NII-1) band, harmonized with rules in place for other 5 GHz spectrum. “We can take the flexible Wi-Fi rules that have already been the script for an unlicensed success story in the 5.725-5.825 GHz band and expand them to the 5.15-5.25 GHz band,” she said. “If we do, we could effectively double unlicensed bandwidth in the 5 GHz band overnight. That will mean more unlicensed service -- and less congestion on licensed wireless networks."