FCC Needs to Get Serious on Receiver Standards: Padden

The FCC needs to take a big swing at receiver standards if it hopes to make any progress, consultant Preston Padden said in a filing posted Wednesday at the FCC. Half measures won’t work, he said. “Our system of spectrum licensing cannot work if entities are licensed for a particular set of frequencies and then the associated industry floods the market with receivers that ‘squat’ over, and preclude the use by others of, a much broader set of frequencies,” Padden said. “Our system of spectrum allocation simply cannot work when, effectively, it is receivers rather than the FCC that are calling the shots,” he said: “The aviation industry still could build altimeters that squat over a vast swath of spectrum licensed to others and still wave the bloody shirt of planes falling from the sky and people dying -- with the outrageous result that licensees who paid the government $82 Billion in good faith cannot fully use their spectrum! And the GPS industry could continue to deploy literally millions of low-cost poorly designed receivers.” The FCC is examining next steps following a recent notice of inquiry (see 2208050044). Padden said he doesn't have a client in the proceeding.