WASHINGTON–The Federal Communications Commission may scrap the band-manager concept as a way to manage spectrum as it examines what to do with the 700 MHz guard-band spectrum being returned by Sprint Nextel Corp.
Only six spectrum-user agreements have been signed by one of the seven guard-band managers, said the FCC.
“These proposals promise to increase the amount of spectrum available for public safety and facilitate more efficient use of both public safety and commercial spectrum in the 700 MHz band. I am pleased that we are seizing this opportunity to simultaneously consider allowing more flexible operations for existing services while ensuring that public-safety users have access to adequate spectrum,” said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
The FCC created two guard bands for spectrum in the 700 MHz band, separating commercial and public-safety uses. One guard band includes a pair of 2-megahertz blocks located at 746-747/776-777 MHz and the other is a pair of 1-megahertz blocks at 762-764/792-794 MHz.
The commission decided it didn’t want the guard bands to be operated like other commercial spectrum so it created the band-manager concept. The guard-band managers bid for the 52 major economic area licenses in two auctions earlier this decade and were supposed to lease that spectrum to other users. To make sure licensees did not use the spectrum but rather managed the spectrum by leasing it to others, the FCC allowed band managers to use less than half of the spectrum for internal operations. This prohibition has become cumbersome for the licensees in the band so the commission is asking whether it should be removed.
Another possible change would be to allow guard-band licensees to deploy cellular architecture in the band. The FCC prohibited this because it was becoming increasingly aware of the problems this type of arrangement–where cellular and public safety are close together–was causing in the 800 MHz band.
“Interference is not caused by a cellular architecture per se, but rather by any single low-power, low-antenna height transmitter that provides a relatively high-field intensity in geographic areas where the desired public-safety signal is weak, for example public-safety mobile handsets,” Access Spectrum L.L.C. and Pegasus Communications Corp. told the FCC, in arguing for the change. The two guard-band licensees proposed “the addition of a power-flux density limit, together with improved receiver technology.”
The death of the band-manager concept would signal a delayed win for wireless trade association CTIA, which fought the concept when it was pushed by then-commissioner Michael Powell.
There are two reasons the FCC is reconsidering its licensing and service rules for the 700 MHz guard bands.
One is that as part of the 800 MHz rebanding plan, the former Nextel Communications Inc. returned 42 licenses. These licenses have not been re-auctioned so the FCC is asking what it should do with this spectrum. Nextel said it should be allocated to public safety to increase its available spectrum. Motorola Inc. and the United Telecom Council, which represents utilities, are urging that it be allocated to critical-infrastructure entities.
The lack of use in the guard bands also is being revisited because Congress has finally set a date for when TV broadcasters must vacate the spectrum in question.
In 1997, Congress said that broadcasters in 2007 would have to return an extra 6 megahertz of spectrum they were given to facilitate the DTV transition, but TV broadcasters could keep the spectrum if more than 15 percent of the homes in their viewing areas could not receive digital signals. The hard date eliminates this caveat and now the TV broadcasters must transition to digital operations by February 18, 2009.
Many believe the uncertainty as to when all of the spectrum could be used has been a disincentive to successful guard-band operations.
