WASHINGTON, March 22, 2023 – Industry leaders disagreed on the capabilities of spectrum sharing and its future in the United States at a Federal Communications Bar Association event Wednesday. 

Dynamic spectrum sharing – a technology that allows for 4G, LTE, and 5G wireless to be used in the same frequency bands – is essential to a successful national spectrum strategy, said Jennifer McCarthy of Federated Wireless.  

Establishing a combination of access points for one frequency band can open its availability for all prospective users, she continued, touting the success of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service established by the Federal Communications Commission in 2012. 

CBRS is the spectrum in the 3.5 GHz to 3.7 GHz band which is shared through a three-tiered framework. Access to the spectrum is managed by a dynamic spectrum access system where incumbent users have protected access, priority access users enter through competitive auction, and general authorized access is given to a broad pool of users when not in use by others.  

Representative of T-Mobile, John Hunter, disagreed, claiming that dynamic spectrum sharing means there is less power available for technologies, particularly on higher frequencies that don’t propagate very far despite power disparities. As such, deploying the CBRS framework at scale across the country is not cost-feasible, he said. 

We should not conclude to share just for the sake of sharing, he said, particularly because it will decrease utility of the band so much that it will decline quality of networks down the line. “In many cases, sharing just outright won’t work,” said Hunter.  

Colleen King, vice president of regulatory affairs at Charter Communications, pushed against the argument that dynamic sharing’s lower power will stop providers from providing great service, claiming that it instead allows for more carriers to provide great service. In fact, the CBRS auction had 228 winning bids, 10 times the amount of other spectrum auctions, she said. 

The FCC’s Communications Marketplace Report showed that in one market where Verizon is using the CBRS framework, the company is providing “much faster speeds” than its other markets, King cited. Charter will use the CBRS system for its spectrum uses, she said. 

Panelists nevertheless agreed on the importance of maintaining US leadership in the spectrum space by developing a national spectrum strategy to address sharing issues. 

The panel followed considerable debate over spectrum allocation, sharing, and expansion. Earlier this week, industry leaders suggested that the allocation process be updated in preparation for future disputes. Additionally, debate continues over whether 5G operations can be shared on the 12 GHz spectrum with satellite service providers.  

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2023 — Although the wireless and aviation industries’ fight over mid-band spectrum has been largely resolved, regulators and experts from both industries agree that the allocation process should be updated in preparation for future disputes.

The challenge for regulators is to balance the “importance of more spectrum for the commercial industry to allow a critically important technology, 5G, to expand… against the equally important issue of, we can’t have airplanes falling out of the sky because their altimeters are being interfered with,” said Lawrence Strickling, former administrator at the NTIA, at an Information Technology & Innovation Foundation event on Monday.

The disagreement between the two industries peaked in January 2022, when the Federal Aviation Administration warned that the safety concerns surrounding major wireless carriers’ planned 5G rollout would lead to widespread flight delays and cancellations — causing an “economic calamity,” according to the leading airline industry association.

The airline industry’s concern was that 5G might interfere with radio altimeters, which provide critical elevation data for flight safety and navigation equipment, explained Jennifer Holder, director of aviation safety and regulatory affairs for Boeing, at the ITIF event.

“In the aviation industry, we don’t deal in ‘mights,’” Holder said. “You have to prove it’s safe.”

Wireless companies agreed to temporarily postpone deployment and work with aviation stakeholders to find a compromise. “We believe we have identified a path that will continue to enable aviation and 5G C-band wireless to safely co-exist,” Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said in June.

Although that particular crisis was averted, many stakeholders agreed that the situation proved the need for an updated spectrum allocation process.

“Spectrum allocation works really, really well for the most part,” Strickling said. “But when you get into these really, really important issues that have severe consequences for different parties, it requires a little more coordination… at an interagency level to avoid the kind of controversy and disappointments that the altimeter controversy created.”

In addition to cooperation between multiple federal agencies, Strickling emphasized the importance of White House involvement with this type of challenge.

Mid-band spectrum remains a key part of innovation in the wireless industry, explained Tom Power, senior vice president and general counsel for wireless trade association CTIA. The C-band is sometimes nicknamed the “Goldilocks band” because it balances the advantages of the lower and higher bands to provide both range and speed, he said.

“It is really important for the nation in terms of the economy and productivity and jobs that we find opportunities, particularly in mid-band spectrum,” he added.

Panelists call for advance planning from both industry and government

Given the thoroughness of aviation standards processes, Holder emphasized the importance of the FAA anticipating emerging technologies rather than responding after problems arise.

However, she also called for updates to the Federal Communications Commission’s rulemaking and allocation procedures to allow more time for research and communication.

“Over the years, it does feel like we’ve had to play defense on spectrum auctions… It is incredibly challenging to evaluate whether or not you have a safety of flight issue in a 30 to 90 day time period,” Holder said.

Strickling agreed, saying that industry stakeholders should be given “as much advance notice as possible” about the potential allocations or reallocations of various spectrum bands.

Previous studies on interference have arrived at different results, Strickling added. Slowing down the auction process could allow more time for competing interests to come together in the design and execution of research.

But before changes to the allocation process are made, the FCC’s spectrum auction authority — which Congress failed to extend earlier in March — must be renewed, panelists agreed.

“This C-band issue has obviously been challenging, but it really is a small bump in the road compared to what we’re facing if we don’t restore spectrum auction authority,” Power said.

WASHINGTON, January 4, 2023 – More than two years after its urging, the Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that it is seeking comment on crafting rules for opening up the lower 5 Gigahertz spectrum band to unmanned aircraft systems, days after Amazon Prime Air began deliveries in two cities using drone technology.

The commission is seeking comments on providing these operators with access to licensed spectrum in the 5030-5091 MHz band for “safety-critical” wireless communications, on whether the commission’s rules on flexible-use spectrum bands are adequate to ensure “co-existence” of ground mobile operations and unmanned aircraft system use, and on a proposal to require such operators to get a license to communicate with air traffic control and other aircraft.

Currently, such unmanned systems operate primarily under unlicensed and low-power wireless communications rules or experimental licenses, according to the FCC. “Given the important current and potential uses for these systems, the Commission will consider ways to improve the reliability of their operations,” the commission said in a release.

“It is past time that we assess the availability of wireless communications resources for the increasingly important remote-piloted aircraft activity we rely on today,” added Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in the release. “The FCC must ensure that our spectrum rules meet the current – and future – spectrum needs of evolving technologies such as unmanned aircraft systems, which can be critical to disaster recovery, first responder rescue efforts, and wildfire management.”

Because it involves flying machines, the rules implicate the Federal Aviation Administration, and because it possibly implicates federal spectrum, it brings in the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which governs the federal use of spectrum.

“Accordingly, a whole-of-government approach is needed to ensure that this proceeding addresses the relevant concerns and issues within the responsibility of each stakeholder agency and that our efforts in this area work in complement with those of our federal partners to support and promote the safe and productive operation of UAS,” the FCC said in its notice of proposed rulemaking.

The support for wireless communications with UAS in the 5030-5091 MHz band is not new. In 2020, the FCC released a report – mandated by Congress in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 – that found that “alternative frequencies licensed under flexible-use service rules are a promising option for UAS communications,” and that the commission “begin a rulemaking to develop service and licensing rules enabling UAS use of that band.”

The request for comments come after Amazon, which began deliveries of packages using drones in California and Texas last week, asked the FCC in November to allow near-ground level drones to utilize the 60-64 GHz band to facilitate safe operations of the drone.

Amazon had asked the commission to adopt a new perspective on drones, saying a “drone package delivery operating near ground level operates much more like a last-mile delivery truck than a cargo plane.”