FCC Must Safeguard Channel 14, Calabrese Says

The FCC must ensure that Globalstar will use Wi-Fi channel 14 in a way that “both safeguards and enhances” unlicensed spectrum in that band before it forecloses “existing and future public use of the unlicensed spectrum at 2473 to 2483.5 MHz,” New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute head Michael Calabrese told an aide to Commissioner Michael O'Rielly in a meeting Feb. 11, an ex parte filing said. To do so, the FCC should allow cooperative testing to determine the interference impact of unlicensed use in the band, Calabrese said. If Globalstar's use of the band won't interfere with other unlicensed use, the commission should condition the use of the spectrum on the company providing a guard band to prevent interference to neighboring spectrum or on Globalstar allowing shared use of channel 14, Calabrese said.