NTIA Updates 3.45 GHz Protection Zones, Urges Quick FCC Auction

NTIA sent a letter to the FCC Monday providing “more refined geographic parameters” for proposed cooperative planning areas (CPAs) and periodic use areas (PUAs) provided by DOD, tied to an eventual 3.45-3.55 GHz auction. NTIA urged the FCC to release rules and auction the band “as expeditiously as practical.” It's seen as a top priority under acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2102190046). The areas aren’t exclusion zones, but “military systems require protection from harmful interference from new non-federal operations, either indefinitely (in CPAs) or episodically (in PUAs), in support of national security missions and to meet readiness requirements,” NTIA wrote. More information will be released as the auction approaches, the letter said: “NTIA and DoD will provide supplemental information to potential bidders similar to the DOD AWS-3 Workbook and NTIA recommends issuing a joint Public Notice, like with AWS-3, with more details on federal notification and coordination.” NTIA reported Monday incumbent informing capability (IIC) time-based sharing holds promise for making more federal spectrum available for commercial use. The sharing system will likely be federalized, “run and administered by NTIA,” the paper said. “NTIA expects that IIC will be deployed over the next few years to support mid-band spectrum sharing predominately between federal systems and broadband wireless carriers using 4G and 5G technology,” it said: “IIC is expected to be a long-term project with iterations that will ultimately allow federal agencies to populate and update in realtime a database with frequency, location, and time-of-use information for systems they deploy.” First steps for testing in the citizens broadband radio service band in this effort are updating the previously developed CBRS portal to a DOD scheduler 11 participating test ranges “and identifying the data collection and security requirements and considerations,” NTIA said. “If successful, NTIA will next evaluate expanding IIC functionality to other 5G mid-band spectrum and ultimately transition the capability to an NTIA operation, allowing us to potentially apply IIC to all federal operations in other bands.” The letter to the FCC said IIC will play a role in 3.45 GHz.