Despite Frustrations, Industry Seen on Track to Work Out Technical Issues on 3.5 GHz Band
The opening of the 3.5 GHz shared band isn't expected to be delayed due to problems industry had getting waveforms from the Navy, Lee Pucker, CEO of the Wireless Innovation Forum (WInnForum), told us Tuesday. Other complications are possible, other industry officials said. But Pucker, who heads the group the FCC tasked with overseeing the technical work on the band, said things are moving ahead. The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is expected to offer licensed spectrum and unlicensed for Wi-Fi and use by wireless ISPs.
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Commissioner Mike O’Rielly raised concerns about progress on rules for environmental sensing capability (ESC) operators, which will assure use of the band doesn’t cause interference issues, especially for Navy radars, in recent speeches. In his most recent speech on the topic, O’Rielly told the CBRS Alliance work seems to be progressing: “It is my understanding that the Department of Defense and FCC are working on an interim step to enable some significant deployments prior to the completion of the ESC.” Chairman Ajit Pai asked O'Rielly to review and propose restructuring the 3.5 GHz band plan (see 1703160029).
Industry officials told us O’Rielly likely was referring to problems industry had getting waveforms from the Navy to protect its coastal operations in the band. One potential wrinkle, industry officials said, is that the Navy also raised questions about potential waveforms for new radars as it upgrades what are often decades-old systems.
“Members have now received the test waveform parameters for all applicable radars,” Pucker said. “We have a commercialization road map that we are working towards. The government has been working with the WInnForum against this schedule.” The sense of the WInnForum Steering Group is that collaboration with the federal government “remains very productive,” Pucker said.
“There was some frustration on the part of industry, but I have not heard that there were any deal breakers,” Dynamic Spectrum Alliance President Kalpak Gude told us. “The process continues and there is an expectation that they will get to closure.”
“Sharing of the 3.5 GHz band is a complex and first-of-its-kind process, and all indications are that it is moving forward at a reasonable pace,” said a federal official. The FCC, NTIA and Navy didn't comment.
The FCC’s order allows the Navy to adopt new systems using different radars, said a wireless industry official whose company is interested in the band. In 2015, the FCC was able reduce the size of Navy protection zones based on a single type of waveform, which allowed the development of “back-off” requirements. The exclusion is predicated on the exclusion zone based on the known radar waveform, the official said. “How do you allow future growth in the band by the Navy … but at the same time make sure you don’t have scope creep where the Navy would put in a new radar system with a much larger back-off requirement?” the official said. “That’s the concern.”
Meanwhile, an American Tower subsidiary filed an application at the FCC seeking special temporary authority to demonstrate distributed antenna system equipment it's developing at the Mobile World Congress in San Francisco in September.