FCC Seeking Comments on Licensed Spectrum Allocation for Unmanned Aircraft

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.”