Boeing, Straight Path at Odds Regarding Millimeter Wave Sharing

Beam-forming technology would allow for spectrum sharing in the 37/39 GHz band, so the argument that such sharing between terrestrial wireless and broadband satellite is "inappropriate" doesn't hold water, Boeing said in a docket 14-177 filing posted Monday aimed at a previous Straight Path filing. Boeing said since such millimeter wave spectrum is best suited for small-cell, high-density coverage, the FCC needs to reconsider its decision to adopt a base station power limit for upper microwave flexible use systems 20 times higher than originally purposed, because UMFUS don't need such high-power transmissions and the result would be intra-system interference within and between UMFUS networks. Boeing said while UMFUS likely would employ beam forming and power controls to avoid interference, those steps still should be required to create regulatory certainty. Boeing defended its technical studies that it said demonstrate satellite downlinks won't increase interference appreciably into UMFUS receivers operating in the 37/39 GHz band. Straight Path didn't comment.