FCC Deemed Likely to Allow Wi-Fi in Some of 6 GHz Band, Over Some Objections

SAN ANTONIO -- The FCC seems poised to allow unlicensed devices including Wi-Fi to use at least part of the 6 GHz band that utilities and some others occupy to monitor infrastructure like power grids. Even though utilities and state telecom regulators have concerns about that approach, the federal regulator seems ready to act in coming months, said stakeholders on all sides that we spoke with on the sidelines of NARUC.

Sunday at the conference, the Critical Infrastructure Committee approved unanimously a resolution that would ask the FCC to delay sharing the frequencies until testing can be done. The resolution would ask the agency to not allow unlicensed use of any part of the swath of airwaves, even indoors and for low-power devices, until automatic frequency coordination could be proven to ward off interference. Wi-Fi proponents including NCTA don’t believe AFC needs to be used for low-power devices indoors.

Monday, NARUC’s Telecommunications Committee unanimously OK’d a draft resolution (see 1911120045) with a few changes that participants described to us as minor. The changes were made at the request of utility associations, and would specify that only license holders in the band would be protected. Participants expect the differences to be worked out between the Telecom and Critical Infrastructure committees, and likely the item will be approved by state commissioners attending the meetings.

“The FCC would like to open the band for unlicensed users,“ said Idaho Public Utilities Commission telecom analyst Daniel Klein. The resolution asks the federal commission to hold off on this until AFC is tested and "proven to work,” he added. The association's board could reconcile the different versions, because the other committee didn’t make any changes, he said in an interview. The minor change the telecom panel made isn’t expected to be controversial, he and others said.

The concern is that AFC “hasn’t been tested,” said Critical Infrastructure Committee Chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille in an interview. “Utilities have built [out] this bandwidth.” Brown Dutrieuille, chairman of the Pennsylvania PUC (a nonpartisan post), noted utilities use the spectrum for what she called resiliency. That can help in disasters, emergencies and other situations.

Brown Dutrieuille and her counterpart on the telecom panel, Chair Karen Charles Peterson, “have to talk to each other and work it out,” NARUC General Counsel Brad Ramsay told us. “If they don’t work it out, then it gets worked out with parliamentary procedure with Robert's Rules in the board meeting.“ And then the board recommends the committee of the whole approve a version, Ramsay said.

Changes Sought

NCTA unsuccessfully tried to get the NARUC committees to make changes to the draft before approving them.

Rather than requiring AFC, NCTA would recommend the FCC “take all necessary steps to protect utility and other CII communications from harmful interference while enabling robust unlicensed operations in the band,” according to the NCTA draft, referring to critical infrastructure industries. “It’s unfortunate that NARUC did not have a fulsome opportunity to hear from proponents of FCC action,” said NCTA Vice President-External and State Affairs Rick Cimerman in an interview. “The FCC has a balancing act and I do not believe this resolution takes account of the balancing that’s needed.”

Some attendees are concerned the FCC could act on 6 GHz before NARUC meets in February in Washington, said Cimerman. So NARUC members didn’t want to wait to organize a panel for that coming conference before voting on this resolution.

During the Telecom Committee meeting, some members hoped for just such a panel, perhaps in February. Nebraska Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades (D) said before voting that she wasn’t sure if she understands the 6 GHz issue. “I’m not entirely comfortable voting for it,” she said. “This is a complex engineering question." She sought more information about “what the actual impact is.” Rhoades later voted yes "because it was a resolution calling for more info," she emailed us.

Michigan PSC Chairman Sally Talberg (political independent) agreed “more general education on spectrum issues would be incredibly valuable for me.” She “would love to listen to one, perhaps in February," she said of such a panel.

5G

“As we go into a world of 5G,“ said U.S. Virgin Islands PSC Commissioner Johann Clendenin (nonpartisan position), “it’s increasingly important that these methodologies, that these strategies, be tested.” Although state regulators “don’t have much regulatory control“ over spectrum issues, they should determine if these procedures are adequate, he added.

Commissioner Mike O’Rielly "recognizes the important benefits to our economy and consumers that could be achieved as a result of finding a path forward on 6 GHz," his office emailed us Monday. "Advancing the conversation in our view will require moving beyond the current rhetoric toward hashing out the technical merits of the debate at the engineering level."

“Freeing up a significant amount of unlicensed spectrum in 6 GHz would notch another win for U.S. leadership in 5G," said FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in a statement to us.

The FCC declined to comment on this and another resolution that also was approved Monday. The body's Democratic commissioners didn't comment on 6 GHz.

The second NARUC resolution would ask the FCC to set automatic speech recognition standards for IP captioned telephone service before allowing ASR to get reimbursement (see 1911150011).

NARUC Notebook

A breach at a fiber communications network provider prompted a change of heart about cybersecurity, its CEO told a panel Monday (see 9:30 a.m. schedule). Syringa Networks' Greg Lowe said that before this year's virtual break-in -- where his company's data was held hostage until he agreed to pay ransom -- "we didn’t believe we were a target, in our cultural bias." And "we believed we had adequate measures protecting ourselves," he added. "I personally don’t think passwords are very useful … but we relied on them nonetheless." That’s "the biggest mistake any company can make, asking your employees to be diligent" on security measures including about passwords, he said. After the incident, "we contacted the FBI. That was a joke," he said. The bureau declined to comment. He spent that day "trying to figure out whether to pay that ransom or let the entire business burn to the ground," he recalled. Syringa needed its billing records, so after talking to the board, "we decided to pay that ransom." The week after the intrusion was discovered, "we were back to work but kind of on a limited basis," Lowe said. Now, "we treat our internal network as a core piece of our business." The company knows it will be targeted, and faced an intrusion last week that was thwarted, Lowe said. "We also know that we’ll never have enough security to prevent intrusion." And "we don’t depend on our employees anymore" to take preventive steps, he said: "We use multifactor authentication on everything" requiring more than one password for email accounts and outside websites. It allows access only to email addresses, websites and applications appearing on a "white list."

Lowe described "a mind shift from preventive to deterrent mode," said CenturyLink Senior Director-National Security Kathryn Condello. She suggested stakeholders examine so-called cyber essentials from the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Syringa last year bought from CenturyLink former Level 3 metropolitan network assets in the Boise area, where that buyer is based. Companies "have to make a risk decision" about cybersecurity, said Fidelis Cybersecurity Chief Technology Officer Craig Harber. "How much am I willing to invest versus how much am I willing to lose."

Amid disagreement on a net neutrality panel, there's some accord on the perceived need for legislation. Both speakers on a panel about the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in Mozilla v. FCC upholding some deregulation said there's room for Congress to step in. "Federal legislative guidance here is sorely needed," said Latham & Watkins' Matthew Murchison. "We can quibble over the details of what that should include, but this debate calls out for that." He seeks "certainty." He and NARUC's Ramsay agreed the Chevron Supreme Court precedent about deference to federal agencies will come up on net neutrality. Chevron "puts the onus first on Congress to write a clear law," said Murchison, speaking only for himself though Latham works for NCTA on litigation in this area. Ramsay wants to know "how are you going to get certainty as long as there is something like the Chevron doctrine out there."