WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to vote this month to resolve most of the remaining issues regarding the tortured refarming docket.
The refarming docket began several years ago as a way of consolidating and better coordinating private wireless spectrum usage. Refarming allows for more flexible use of the spectrum by mandating the use of spectrum-efficient equipment.
The private wireless community has been fractured in recent months over the future of refarming as various groups have filed petitions to remain in control of their former spectrum allocations.
The FCC is taking a second crack at refining the refarming proceeding due to a the petition filed by the Automobile Association of America. Concerns raised by AAA forced a previous staff-level proposal to be re-worked. AAA is asking to be declared a “quasi public safety.” This status would allow it the right of first refusal when others want to use spectrum formerly in the Automobile Emergency Radio Service (AERS) band, said Gary Ruark, AAA’s frequency coordinator.
AAA has received powerful support from members of the Senate. On two different occasions, a group of senators sent a letter to FCC Chairman William Kennard urging him to give AAA quasi public-safety status.
Refarming combined 20 radio services, including AERS, into two pools-public safety and industrial/business. AAA has asked the FCC to allow it to coordinate the former 43 AERS frequencies in the same way the utilities, railroads and the petroleum industry are allowed to coordinate their frequencies. The utilities, railroads and petroleum industry were given quasi-public-safety status because the FCC believed these entities used their spectrum differently than other business/industrial users.
These last three industries also are responsible for another petition to be addressed by the circulating item. UTC, The Telecommunications Association, the Association of American Railroads, and the American Petroleum Institute, filed a petition suggesting a third pool be established for critical infrastructure industries.
The third pool would be known as the public service pool. The public service pool “would protect vital public-safety-related services from interference and encroachment by new industrial and commercial communications systems. Such protection is absolutely critical in the current environment of spectrum safety congestion,” the three associations said.
A third petition filed by the American Mobile Telecommunications Association is not expected to be addressed in the refarming item. This petition asked the FCC to establish specific dates for private wireless entities to move to more spectrum-efficient equipment. AMTA President Alan Shark said he expects the AMTA Business 2000+ plan to be part of an expected notice of proposed rule making on implementing the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. This NPRM is expected to be released by the FCC early next year.
