WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission Thursday adopted rules in three spectrum-related proceedings meant to help spur the development of wireless broadband and keep up with evolving technologies all at the same time.
“In this series of decisions, we are paving the way for new technologies. It is a challenge for the FCC, new technologies always move faster than we do,” said FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy. “As technology changes and develops, we have to keep updating our rules.”
In an attempt to get more spectrum to rural America, the FCC created a hybrid licensing-and-use scheme for operations in the 3650 MHz band-50 megahertz of spectrum returned from the federal government that still has some satellite and government incumbents that must be protected.
Taking cues from both the unlicensed model-by allowing anyone to operate in the band-and the licensed model by requiring users to first obtain licenses, the FCC hopes wireless Internet service providers will be able to offer broadband to rural America due to the increase in power limits.
Due to the incumbent restrictions, many of the urban centers in the 3650 MHz band are off limits, James Schlichting, deputy chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology, told reporters after the meeting.
By requiring that licensees in the 3650 MHz band register base stations, the FCC, incumbents and other users will have an ability to monitor the band and make usage choices much like travelers on a given route decide whether to take a specific road based on traffic levels, said John Muleta, chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
FCC Chairman Michael Powell said this decision, one of his last before leaving the commission next week was one of the most difficult. When reporters asked Muleta why, he said, “the industry tends to think in pure licensed and unlicensed.”
The FCC also modified its authorization rules for software defined radios, also known as cognitive radios, to no longer require that manufacturers give the commission the software when seeking authorization but rather just supply the agency with “higher level operational characteristics,” said Bruce Franca, deputy chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology.
SDRs use technology to adapt to spectrum that is available in a specific frequency, at a specific location at a specific time.
“I am all for smart radios because that means I don’t have to be so smart,” said Abernathy.
The FCC expects these devices to become more common and noted that “active efforts are currently under way both in industry forums and standards bodies to adopt internationally accepted standards for SDRs.”
Finally, the FCC also adopted a waiver that will allow ultra-wideband devices to be tested in their normal operating mode.
“It appears our existing rules were impeding UWB devices,” said Abernathy, noting “our rules were intentionally conservative.”
The waiver had been sought by the Multi-band OFDM Alliance Special Interest Group. It does not extend to UWB operations in the Doppler Radar band, said John Reed, senior engineer in the technical rules division of the FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology.
