O'Rielly Frustrated With Slow Movement Toward Launch of 3.5 GHz CBRS Band

FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel, appearing together at a WifiForward event, agreed the FCC needs to make more spectrum available for Wi-Fi. Both expressed impatience with the slow pace of opening the 5.9 GHz band for sharing with Wi-Fi. O’Rielly said later he doesn’t have a firm timetable for the release of proposed rules for the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band.

“It’s incredibly frustrating, I’ll admit,” O’Rielly said of the 3.5 GHz band after the event. “It’s taking a lot of time and I’m disappointed I haven’t been able to give the chairman recommendations earlier.” Early last year, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai tasked O’Rielly with overseeing changes to rules for the band (see 1703160029). The FCC is “still working really hard” on getting the spectrum access system administrators and environmental sensing capability operators ready to operate in the band while he rethinks rules for priority access licenses (PALs), O'Rielly said. “Trains are moving and pieces are moving,” he said.

O’Rielly said he's trying to get consensus on the geographic sizes of the PALs, an issue that has been an ongoing argument between industry players (see 1801020046). “Maybe I can’t make a perfect solution” but some compromise is possible, he said. “Negotiations are always a couple of steps forward and a couple of steps back,” he said. “We’re working through that and talking to all the interested parties.”

Nine billion Wi-Fi devices already are in the market with another 3 billion expected to ship this year, Rosenworcel said during the WifiForward discussion. “That’s going to crowd our airwaves and I think it is imperative for the FCC to give some thought to that and to take some action.” Every time the FCC allocates more spectrum for licensed use it also should provide more for unlicensed, she said.

The status quo “is wonderful,” O’Rielly said. “At the same time, it is an incredible problem. … We have enormous work to do.” Unlicensed has to be “part of the overall picture” when the FCC addresses spectrum, he said. In the Mobile Now Act, Congress instructed the FCC to identify 100 MHz of spectrum below 8 GHz for unlicensed, Rosenworcel noted. “That doesn’t happen without some effort and some commitment,” she said. “That’s not an easy task,” O’Rielly agreed.

The 5.9 GHz band, a key band being looked at for sharing with Wi-Fi, is “a mess,” O’Rielly said. A few automakers led by GM and Toyota still plan to deploy dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) technology in the band (see 1804260040). “I’m a little dubious on what may actually happen,” O’Rielly said. “We’ve had some of the car companies recently talk about what they may do. … We’ve had promises before. They haven’t materialized.”

The FCC set aside the band for DSRC about 20 years ago, Rosenworcel noted. A lot has changed since, she said. The National Transportation Safety Board suggested it will take another 30 years for DSRC to be effective, she said. “Life comes at you fast,” she said. “Spectrum policy needs to move faster.” The FCC should release the results of the tests it did on sharing between Wi-Fi and DSRC in the band, she said. O’Rielly said Pai is committed to tacking the 5.9 GHz band.

O’Rielly also said he's pleased that Pai said Wednesday the FCC will take up an NPRM at its July meeting promoting “more intensive use” of the 3.7-4.2 GHz band, including seeking comment on making it available for commercial terrestrial use (see 1805230031). “I was a little disappointed [he] didn’t talk about 6 GHz,” O’Rielly said. “I’ll be getting back in touch with him to talk about that.” If possible, the FCC should address both bands together, O’Rielly said.

O’Rielly told reporters in general that he likes the Intel/Intelsat plan for clearing the 3.7 GHz band (see 1710020047) and believes it could mean a faster transition for the spectrum. O’Rielly is less enthusiastic about a rival plan by the Broadband Access Coalition, which last year asked the FCC to allow fixed wireless use of the band (see 1708080050). “I haven’t really found that [to be] too favorable,” he said of the BAC plan. “I don’t like where they’re going.” O’Rielly said he’d like to see unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band.

Both commissioners also want more spectrum sharing. “Every incumbent knows that they better use spectrum as efficiently as possible or there’ll be someone, at the commission or in the private sector, that’s looking at their band to reallocate it or reband it,” O’Rielly said. Asked if he gets lots of pushback from incumbents, O’Rielly said: “Absolutely, on a daily basis.”

The spectrum is more crowded than ever, Rosenworcel said. “We’re going to have to rethink some of our assumptions about interference, particularly if they’re dependent on decades old technology,” she said.