5G for 12 GHz Coalition Leaders Say FCC Can Act This Year

Officials with the 5G for 12 GHz Coalition still hope for FCC rules allowing use of the lower 12 GHz band for fixed-wireless by the end of the year, in time for the spectrum to be used as part of projects approved under of the broadband equity, access and deployment program. But SpaceX and DirecTV, in particular, which opposed mobile use for 5G, are giving no ground. Replies were posted Monday in docket 20-443.

“We have seen this movie before,” SpaceX said, referring to the initial push for rules that led to the FCC’s May Further NPRM (see 2305180052). “So far the sequel is playing out just as expected -- same storyline, same cast, same glaring plot holes,” SpaceX said: The 5G coalition “ignored the Commission’s call for a concrete proposal, and failed to provide a rigorous technical analysis of the interference implications of any terrestrial operations.” Dish Network “made a half-hearted attempt at a proposal, but once again followed its same script from the earlier proceeding.”

Giving multichannel video and data distribution service licensees like Dish authority to launch high-power, two-way point-to-multipoint systems in the 12 GHz band would “obliterate the carefully tailored interference protection framework in the band, severely threaten to undermine the services" provided by direct broadcast satellite licensees, "and harm millions of DBS subscribers … all to unjustly enrich a single class of incumbents,” said DirecTV. Dish alone offered an interference analysis but only with respect to non-geostationary orbit use, not DBS, the company said.

Everyone, except a few commenters, supports use of the band for fixed-wireless, Jeff Blum, Dish executive vice president-external and legislative affairs, told us. Without spectrum auction authority, “the FCC really has no other spectrum opportunity for the foreseeable future,” Blum said. “Timing is important because of BEAD,” he said: States are starting to recognize that “fixed wireless is going to need to be part of the solution” and BEAD doesn’t provide enough funding to connect everyone with fiber. “There is an urgency,” he said.

Blum noted Dish offered in its initial filing to make up to 100 MHz of contiguous lower 12 GHz band spectrum available for free to tribal communities, providing “a major public interest benefit.” Dish’s proposal includes a plan to protect incumbents by not pointing a beam in the direction of a satellite incumbent. Interference is easier to address in fixed than mobile, he said: “It’s zero interference. It’s not hard.” Blum sees the lower 12 GHz band as easier to address than the upper band because it has no federal incumbents and a limited number of stakeholders.

Incompas President Chip Pickering said using 12 GHz for BEAD projects is the kind of opportunity that comes around only every 20 years. “There have been those who are asking for additional time or delays that we think are unnecessary, and the commission has rejected those calls because I think they recognize that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring valuable mid-band spectrum” into play at a “moment that matches the record level of funding,” he said.

Vote This Year

Pickering sees the FCC as “on track” to act by year-end. “We’re very pleased with the comments, the technical filings, where we are in this proceeding,” he said.

“Proponents of sharing have more than met their share of the burden of proof,” Dish said in reply comments: “DISH has already done what both SpaceX and DIRECTV have asked. DISH responded to the Commission’s request for ‘specific proposals and detailed technical data’ with a study by RKF Engineering showing the feasibility of sharing as well as proposed technical changes to the rules governing the 12.2 GHz band.”

“The submission of DISH’s technical study demonstrating that coexistence between a fixed wireless service” and NGSO incumbents “is feasible in the 12.2 GHz band, coupled with the public interest benefits that next generation services will bring, should give the Commission considerable confidence that flexible use of the band is warranted,” Incompas said. RS Access, another leading member 5G coalition, also emphasized the importance to BEAD. “The record is now clear: the MVDDS Band … is the best opportunity that the Commission has to rapidly add meaningful wireless capacity with compelling performance characteristics without harming any existing end users,” RS Access said.

“The record clearly indicates that the Commission can take immediate action to reach Americans on the wrong side of the digital divide by earmarking 12.2 GHz spectrum for optimization,” the 5G coalition said: “The 12.2 GHz band’s greatest advantage is that it is available for immediate deployment, enabling quicker and easier network rollouts, wasting no time connecting the millions of Americans without access to high-speed broadband services.”

But a group of NGSO fixed satellite service operators warned of harmful interference. “Fundamentally, the interference problem arises because the expected ubiquity of the new interfering transmitters is incompatible with the existing and growing ubiquity of the victim DBS and FSS receivers,” the group said: “The physical fact remains that DBS and NGSO FSS dishes in the band are receiving weak signals from space and would be very vulnerable to the higher-powered services contemplated by DISH.”

“There are no new technologies that help mitigate this interference, as the phased array and [multiple-input and multiple-output] technologies referred to by DISH are borrowed directly from the mobile service that the Commission has already rejected,” the satellite companies said. The filing was signed by Intelsat, SES Americom, Hispasat, Eutelsat and Ovzon.

Public Knowledge and the Open Technology Institute at New America commented on a single issue -- Dish’s commitment to dedicate part of the band to tribal use. The offer “while commendable, does not adequately reflect the importance of Tribal Sovereignty,” the public interest groups said. If the FCC agrees with Dish it should partition the part of the band covering tribal lands “and transfer the licensing rights to Tribes that request the licenses on the same terms and conditions as the expanded incumbent license,” they said: The agency should also “transfer the enhanced terrestrial license rights (whether exclusive or non-exclusive) for the full 500 MHz of spectrum to Tribal entities that request access in the 12.2 GHz band.”