Carr, Simington Dissent as Commissioners Seek Comment on 24 GHz Rule Change

Republican FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington dissented on an NPRM that seeks to align rules for the 24 GHz band with decisions made at the World Radiocommunication Conference four years ago. Carr accused the Biden administration of retreating rather than moving forward on spectrum.

The NPRM had long been stalled at the FCC with only Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks voting to approve (see 2212290030), prior to the arrival of Commissioner Anna Gomez, a third Democrat. A year ago, the NPRM was already the longest-standing item on the FCC circulation list. Comment dates will come in a Federal Register notice. AT&T and T-Mobile were the top bidders in the 2019 auction of 24 GHz licenses (see 1906030063).

“When it comes to America’s leadership in wireless, the Biden Administration is moving backwards,” Carr said. The proposed changes “are asks that were either rejected or never even studied at WRC-19,” he added. “Thus, WRC-19 provides no basis or justification for turning heel.”

“Specifically, we propose to align part 30 of the Commission’s rules for mobile operations with the Resolution 750 limits on unwanted emissions into the passive 23.6-24.0 GHz band that were adopted at WRC-19,” said the NPRM, posted in Tuesday's Daily Digest. These proposed rule changes “would help to facilitate the protection of passive sensors used for weather forecasting and scientific research in the 23.6 GHz-24.0 GHz band, while continuing to promote flexible commercial use of the 24.25-24.45 GHz and 24.75-25.25 GHz bands,” the notice says: “We also seek comment on alternatives to the proposals we make, and on other related issues.”

Changing the rules for spectrum years after an auction is bad policy, Carr said: “It undermines the reasonable, investment-backed expectations held by licensees and potential licensees alike. And it injects uncertainty into the FCC’s spectrum auction process, which makes it harder to attract capital as well as innovators.”

Simington said the NPRM delves into items not raised at WRC-19. “Opening up these issues to question post-auction sets a bad precedent that could upend investments made by the bidders at auction” and “disrupts the deployment of fixed and mobile services that have been deployed in the band since the conclusion of the auction,” he said.

Rosenworcel defended the NPRM, noting she was in Dubai for part of the recent WRC. “It is essential that we honor the resolutions from this conference and past ones,” she said. “Here, we take steps to implement specific policies from that last gathering by proposing to align our rules for 5G mobile services in the 24 GHz band with international protections for weather forecasting and climate research that takes place in adjacent bands,” she said.

“The world followed” the U.S. lead in adopting mobile operations in the 24 GHz band, Rosenworcel said: “Now with this rulemaking, we seek to fulfill our obligations in this band, and in doing so commit to strike the right balance between fostering mobile service and protecting resources for scientific research.”

Every decision made at a WRC “represents years of collaboration and hard work between federal agencies, the telecommunications industry, and our regional and international partners,” Gomez said: Adopting the NPRM "furthers our domestic and international goals -- continued wireless innovation and protection of critical services that creates economic prosperity for American consumers and businesses, and global collaborations that reflect our leadership internationally.”

The NPRM proposes to adopt the Resolution 750 emissions limits, apply them to all mobile systems in the band and to incorporate them into the Part 30 technical rules and as a new U.S. footnote to the Table of Frequency Allocations. “We seek comment on this proposal and on alternative limits, including the effect of any changes to existing limits on smaller entities,” the notice says: “We also seek comment on the schedule for adoption of any revised limits, including adjustments that should be made for smaller entities to come into compliance.”

“Based on the record before us, it appears that the proposed Resolution 750 unwanted emission limits likely strike the appropriate balance between protecting passive sensing and facilitating use of the 24 GHz band,” the NPRM asserts. It notes previous support from NTIA, AT&T, CTIA, Nokia, T-Mobile, Ericsson and others. “NTIA asserts that adopting the rules would help to meet the Administration’s goals for climate monitoring and climatological science, would enable the U.S. to maintain its position as a world leader in telecommunications, and would enable manufacturers to produce equipment marketable across the globe,” the notice says.

Qualcomm has argued that the change would require equipment that uses the 24 GHz upper microwave flexible use band “to operate with lower in-band power levels,” the NPRM says: “We seek comment on Qualcomm’s concerns. In particular, we ask parties that argue that adoption of the Resolution 750 limits would increase network deployment costs to quantify these additional costs and to specify the impact on existing and future service.”