Wheeler circulates NPRM looking at flexible use plans for bands above 24 GHz
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that looks to provide “flexible spectrum use rules for bands above 24 GHz, including for mobile broadband use.”
Wheeler said that promoting flexible use of those spectrum bands would help support the continued development of high-speed mobile broadband services.
“We are leveraging regulatory advances and propose to use market-based mechanisms that will allow licensees to provide any service – fixed, mobile, private, commercial and satellite – depending on the band, and allow unlicensed uses to continue to expand,” Wheeler noted in a blog post. “We are proposing to create a space that leverages the properties of this high band spectrum to simultaneously meet the needs of different users.”
Wheeler also referenced recent FCC work ahead of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference where the government agency said it plans to engage the international community on spectrum harmonization work for bands above 6 GHz. That work is to set the table for bands to be proposed by the U.S. for eventual inclusion at the WRC event in 2019, which the FCC said will include the 27.5 GHz-29.5 GHz bands; 37 GHz-40.5 GHz bands; 47.2 GHz-50.2 GHz bands; 50.4 GHz-52.6 GHz bands; and the 59.3 GHz-71 GHz bands.
“The bands we propose in this NPRM are consistent with the U.S. position, and we are committed to working with both domestic and international partners on developing rules for these bands and on conducting technical sharing and compatibility studies,” Wheeler said. “We are not only thinking globally to ensure that we can export U.S. innovation, we want to make sure U.S. markets have clear rules of the road for foreign investment.”
Spectrum bands above 24 GHz are often referred to as “millimeter wave” spectrum for their relatively short wave lengths that make them ideal for small cell or indoor deployments.
The FCC began looking at spectrum above 24 GHz last year as part of a notice of inquiry to look at the possible use of those spectrum assets for mobile services. The notice included looking at the feasibility of those spectrum bands to support so-called “5G” services.
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