WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission said on Dec. 28 that it was re-allocating 27 megahertz of spectrum for new flexible services.
The spectrum is being made available as part of the 1993 congressionally mandated transfer of 200 megahertz of government spectrum to non-governmental uses.
None of the spectrum being made available is in the bands widely sought by the commercial-wireless industry for third-generation wireless services.
One wireless company, however, ArrayComm Inc. said the re-allocation was a “step forward for innovative spectrally efficient wireless technologies.”
“The FCC’s action, particularly its allocation of unpaired spectrum, is an important step toward bringing new wireless data services to America’s consumers,” said Martin Cooper, co-founder and chief executive officer of ArrayComm.
ArrayComm is one of several emerging companies, which proposes to use time division duplexing for wireless transmission.
As part of the re-allocation some federal systems were grandfathered in or will retain their primary status until the new service pays to relocate the government service.
The FCC expects to shortly issue proposed rules for the re-allocated bands and auction some of the bands by the end of September.
The following is a list of the re-allocations:
216-220 MHz band to fixed and mobile services on a co-primary basis. Both government and non-government telemetry incumbents will be grandfathered on a secondary basis in the 216-220 MHz band and new secondary telemetry operations will be permitted in the 217-220 MHz band;
1390-1392 MHz band to fixed and mobile (except aeronautical mobile) services on a co-primary, unpaired basis;
1392-1395 and 1432-1435 MHz bands to fixed and mobile (except aeronautical mobile) services on a co-primary paired basis;
1670-1675 MHz band to fixed and mobile (except aeronautical mobile) services on a co-primary unpaired basis;
2385-2390 MHz band to fixed and mobile on a co-primary unpaired basis;
Shifted the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service from 1429-1432 to 1427-1429.5 MHz as requested by the American Heart Association; and
1390-1392 and 1430-1432 MHz bands to the fixed-satellite service.
