Month: July 2015

LightSquared Says GPS Filing Has “Significant Errors”

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LightSquared, Inc., said in a filing with the FCC that a recent ex parte filing by the GPS Innovation Alliance had “several significant errors or incomplete engineering and technical points,” including what level of noise floor increase constitutes harmful interference and whether significant buffers are needed between GPS and terrestrial operations.

In a July 2 ex parte filing in IB docket 12-340, LightSquared took issue with the alliance statement in a June 19 filing “that an increase of 1 dB in the noise floor is the ‘definition of harmful interference.’ The Alliance cites no Commission source for this, but instead simply asserts it. The Alliance’s assertion that 1 dB ‘is the accepted interference standard worldwide’ is simply false.”

LightSquared also noted that “the Alliance provides a graph from an Aerospace study, arguing that it shows that GPS devices are more resilient to adjacent band power than other consumer devices. This graph shows that the best performing of three GPS devices was a Garmin GPS receiver. While the Alliance does not explain the reason for varying levels of resiliency, this result is consistent with the results seen in the testing performed by the Technical Working Group (‘TWG’) in 2011: many devices across all categories showed high levels of resilience and thus compatibility with terrestrial use of L-band.

“Thus, it is obvious that the capabilities and components exist for the GPS industry to build receivers that are resilient to overload, compatible with terrestrial use of L-band, and that industry best practices in this regard should be widely adopted. Such best practices are routinely used by manufacturers of cellular handsets, which, as a class, demonstrated very high levels of resiliency in TWG testing.” Continue reading →

Obama Signs DHS Interoperability Bill

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President Obama today signed a bill (HR 615) to require the Department of Homeland Security to take steps to ensure that its component agencies have interoperable communications. The House last month agreed to a Senate amendment to HR 615 (TRDaily, June 23). The Department of Homeland Security Interoperable Communications Act was introduced by Rep. Donald M. Payne Jr. (D., N.J.), ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee’s emergency preparedness, response, and communications subcommittee.  To review HR 615, click on the following link.

TRDaily Reports: NPSTC Reiterates Concern with PSD Waiver

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The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council has reiterated its concern about requests for waivers filed by AT&T, Inc.,  to allow the use of power spectral density (PSD) measurements until the FCC completes action in a proceeding in which it is considering modernizing its cellular licensing rules (TRDaily, Nov. 10, 2014).

NPSTC yesterday filed comments in WT docket 15-130 that were similar to those it filed in response to an earlier AT&T request for a PSD waiver (TRDaily, May 1).

In the latest request, AT&T is seeking the waiver for cellular operations in seven Kansas cellular market areas (CMAs). The earlier request that NPSTC weighed in on involved four Missouri markets.

AT&T has proposed a PSD limit of 250 watts/megahertz in non-rural areas and 500 watts/MHz in rural areas.

“NPSTC recommends the Commission address changes to a cellular service power limit rules through the rulemaking proceeding and not through waiver requests,” the federation said in the comments filed yesterday. “However, should the Commission decide to grant AT&T’s waiver request, NPSTC urges that the waiver include specific conditions requiring AT&T to resolve and report any interference that occurs to public safety operations and to compensate public safety entities for their time and expenses involved in investigating and resolving interference.”- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

 

GPS Alliance Says LightSquared Resolution “Not a Private Matter” for Three GPS Firms

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The GPS Innovation Alliance today responded to a recent ex parte filing at the FCC filed by LightSquared LLC that suggested that the company and several manufacturers of GPS devices “can reach a reasonable business compromise” (TRDaily, June 29). The organization said all stakeholders must be involved in any solution.

In the filing, LightSquared mentioned plans for its engineers to conduct testing and said the FCC could help it obtain receiver design information from Deere & Company, Garmin International, Inc., and Trimble Navigation Ltd. LightSquared also said it wanted explanations from those companies about the economic issues that concern them regarding LightSquared’s planned terrestrial network and would like to meet with the companies to discuss a variety of issues, including pending litigation.

The GPS Innovation Alliance said in a statement released late this afternoon that it “supports a consensus-driven process, including all government and non-government stakeholders, to clearly identify and address remaining technical issues raised by LightSquared proposals to repurpose mobile satellite spectrum for terrestrial broadband use.  The technical challenges posed by these proposals are formidable, as evidenced by the conclusions of multiple U.S. government entities. Continue reading →

California Lawmakers Press Kerry on 800 MHz Band

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Members of the California congressional delegation have written Secretary of State John F. Kerry to press the department to urge Mexican authorities to implement a 2012 revised protocol governing a realigned 800 megahertz band. A letter from the delegation to Mr. Kerry was dated June 26.

“In 2012, the United States signed spectrum sharing agreements with Mexico to enable advanced public safety and commercial communication along the U.S.-Mexico border. We are concerned about the negative impact of the prolonged delay in implementation of the spectrum sharing agreement on the safety and economic opportunity of Americans living and working along the border,” said the bipartisan letter, which was signed by 35 House members from California. “We respectfully request an update on efforts by the State Department to resolve this issue with the Government of Mexico, including a timeline for its resolution.”

FCC and Mexican officials recently reported progress in a meeting that U.S. officials had with their Mexican counterparts on various spectrum issues, including realignment of the 800 MHz band (TRDaily, June 19). Mexican telecom officials have told U.S. officials that they “will give realignment of the 800 MHz band the highest priority,” a State Department official said recently in response to senators who have expressed concern about the state of the 800 MHz band deployment (TRDaily, May 27).- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

FirstNet Answers Rest of RFP Questions

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The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) has released the fourth and last  batch of answers to questions concerning the draft request for proposals (RFP) and special notice it released in April (TRDaily, April 27).  Today’s tranche included answers to about 150 questions. In all, FirstNet received 670 questions from 52 entities about the draft RFP and special notice, including in writing and during an industry day held in May (TRDaily, May 14). There were a total of 666 answers released, as there were a few duplicate questions or statements or comments rather than questions.

FCC Seeks Comment on Sprint Waiver

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The FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau sought comment today on a waiver request filed by Sprint Corp. seeking authorization to allow 800 megahertz wideband operations in portions of the Region 43 (Washington state) NPSPAC region before 800 MHz rebanding is complete. Comments are due July 31 and replies Aug. 17 in WT docket 15-156.

 

TRDaily Reports NPSTC Document Looks at FirstNet, NG9-1-1

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The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council released a six-page paper today that provides “an overview of the similarities and differences, and interconnectivity between the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network (FirstNet) and Next Generation 9-1-1 networks (NG9-1-1).” The paper notes that “[w]hen properly designed and implemented, NG9-1-1 systems and FirstNet will complement each other in multiple ways and will provide public safety with a broad range of new capabilities.”

FCC Dismisses Amateur Petitions

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The Mobility Division of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau today dismissed two petitions for rulemaking filed by Willison Gormly seeking the division of the agency’s rules for technician and novice class amateur radio operators, and the authorization of spread spectrum emission types in the 2 meter band. “The rule changes you propose were previously rejected by the Commission,” today’s order said. “Your petitions do not demonstrate or even suggest that any relevant circumstances have changed such as to merit reconsideration of these decisions. Consequently, we conclude that they do not present grounds for the Commission to propose amending Sections 97.301 and 97.305, and we dismiss the petitions.”

 

Andy Seybold’s Public Safety Advocate, July 3, 2015

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FirstNet and NTIA need at least one partner to step up big-time when the FirstNet RFP is released in December of this year (scheduled date). FirstNet’s $6.5 billion will not go very far in building out the network which is described in the RFP. This network is a full up commercial style network including dial-up voice, texting, and roaming with other LTE and 3G networks. My back of the envelope calculations which I have vetted with numerous folks and they think I am in the ball park, is that a 10 year capex and opex for a network as specified could run between $35 and $45 Billion.

Obviously that would not all need to be spent at one time but it is a lot of money, and FirstNet needs at least one partner and probably more who are willing to build the network in exchange for secondary access to the FirstNet Band 14 spectrum. The question I have is does the First Responder community really need a do everything network from the very beginning when the commercial network operators are handling voice and text at pretty reasonable prices. Would it not be smarter to start with a network that provides the ADDITIONAL services needed by Public Safety in the way of data and video first and THEN move towards the rest of the functionality once the first responder community is up to speed on the data aspects of the network?

I have read every word of the various RFP documents and I have reviewed all of the 666 questions that were (somebody should have asked one more!) asked and FirstNet’s answers and I am bothered by a couple of things. Many of the answer to the questions are worded like this: “may be included in the subsequent RFP in order to afford potential offerors an opportunity to make a business decision with regard to participation in the NPSBN acquisition and prepare their proposed solutions accordingly.” I know from my conversations with a number of perhaps potential bidders and/or partners for the RFP that many of them are sitting on the fence looking for more detailed information before assigning a team to respond.

Just drafting a response to this RFP is going to be an expensive proposition and if some of those sitting on the fence are not comfortable with the documents and the answers received are vague in nature, I am concerned that FirstNet will not receive the number of bidders that will be needed to find the right one or combination of vendors to get this project underway. Further when asked about the question “What is the schedule for FirstNet to release the selection criteria for the RFP” The answer remains vague and indicates that this very important document may, in fact, not be released until the final RFP is released. In reality those who are going to bid on the RFP will make up their minds prior to its final release and not after the fact because then they won’t have enough time to respond to the RFP properly.

This is a very complex project, one that has never been done before but it can be done and it can be done with willing partners but before they simply say to FirstNet “we are in” they have to know not only the rewards but the risks as well. Next week this summary will be late as I won’t return home form my trip until late on Saturday, but it will be sent out over the week-end. Meanwhile a very happy and sane Fourth of July to all. Andy Continue reading →