EchoStar urged the FCC to clarify that set-top...

EchoStar urged the FCC to clarify that set-top boxes acting as client devices for indoor wireless access points can operate in the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure, or the U-NII-1 band, at the maximum power level afforded under new Wi-Fi rules. The new rules require a company that is deploying more than 1,000 outdoor access points in the 5.15-5.25 GHz band to submit a letter that acknowledges responsibility for correcting interference. Where EchoStar’s Wi-Fi-enabled set-top boxes are using unlicensed spectrum, it’s essential that they be permitted “to operate at the same maximum power levels that Part 15 affords to access points or other indoor devices that operate in an entirely stationary mode,” it said in a petition for reconsideration in docket 13-49 (http://bit.ly/1p4KyOU). There’s no indication in the NPRM for this proceeding that the FCC intended to suggest otherwise, it said. The new rule also assigns the higher maximum power level of 1 Watt to “indoor access points,” without explicitly acknowledging indoor client devices “that operate in an equally stationary mode and are neither ‘mobile’ or ‘portable’ in the manner of, for example, a smartphone or a tablet,” it said.