Courtesy: TR Daily

The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council and Motorola Solutions, Inc., have filed comments opposing a request filed by GoGo Business Aviation LLC for a waiver of the FCC’s rules governing the effective radiated power (ERP) limits for air-to-ground operations in the 849-851 megahertz and 894-896 MHz bands (TR Daily, May 27 and July 7), citing, among other things, the potential for interference to nearby public safety operations.

The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau observed in a public notice released in WT docket 21-282 that GoGo “seeks relief from the rule to permit measurement of the maximum average power for the current ERP limit, rather than the current peak power measurement specified in the rule. GoGo BA states that a waiver is necessary to permit a transition to its next generation system using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex Technology (OFDM) that will improve throughput, coverage, and reliability for inflight connectivity to aircraft in the U.S and Canada,” and that adherence to the rule “would unnecessarily hamper the service being delivered with no discernable reduction in harmful interference risk for co-channel or adjacent band operators.”

“The Gogo BA ATG ground based transmitters operate at 849-851 MHz, directly adjacent to public safety operations at 851-854 MHz, with no intervening guard band. Grant of its waiver would result in increased power and deployment of OFDM technology with a greater propensity for out-of-band emissions than that of Gogo BA’s current technology,” NPSTC said in its comments.

“However, Gogo BA has ignored the risk of increased interference to public safety communications and therefore has failed to demonstrate that there is a stronger public interest benefit in granting the waiver than in applying the current rule. NPSTC believes it would be more prudent for the Commission to consider the Gogo request through a rulemaking proceeding in which it can more fully examine the potential interference impact to public safety operations,” NPSTC added. “If the Commission authorizes the Gogo request through either waiver or rulemaking, and interference to public safety operations occurs, Gogo BA should be required to shut down the offending base station(s) immediately until other steps, if any, can be taken to eliminate the interference.”

Motorola asked the FCC “to deny Gogo BA’s Request for Waiver, which broadly fails to meet the legal requirements for waiver of the Commission’s rules. Of note, the Commission may waive a rule if special circumstances warrant a deviation from the general rule and if that nonconformity to the rule would serve the public interest. In this case, Gogo BA’s Request for Waiver has neglected to demonstrate how it would advance the public interest and fails to provide sufficient information required to determine potential impacts on adjacent band operations. Specifically, Gogo BA requests increases in power and changes in waveforms that are not defined, unsubstantiated as to impact upon adjacent services, and have no basis in previous use under the specific circumstances stipulated by the Request for Waiver. Therefore, it is imperative that the Commission deny the Gogo BA Request for Waiver as contrary to its rules and the public interest.”

The company added, “The Waiver Request improperly suggests that the adjacent service that Gogo BA needs to protect is that of another broadband service, the newly created 900 MHz broadband allocation at 936.5-939.5 MHz. However, the adjacent service that will encounter the brunt of any increased out-of-band emissions (‘OOBE’) created by the proposed Gogo BA Request for Waiver is the narrowband sub-allocation operating in the 935-936.5 MHz band; paired with 896.0-897.5 MHz.” —Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

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