AT&T, Inc., has asked the FCC to waive the interim performance requirements for its WCS C- and D-block licenses, saying the relief is needed to give it time to deploy an LTE smart grid service.

“The technical restrictions needed to protect adjacent Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (‘SDARS’) and Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry (‘AMT’) users severely constrain potential applications for the 2.3 GHz Wireless Communications Service (‘WCS’) C and D Block spectrum,” AT&T said in a redacted version of a petition for limited waiver filed yesterday. “Notwithstanding challenges more severe than AT&T had forecast back in 2012, AT&T remains on pace to deploy mobile and fixed broadband services to satisfy the interim and final performance requirements for the WCS A and B Blocks. In contrast—just as the record in the WCS rulemaking predicted—finding a noninterfering use for the C and D Blocks has proven to be a significant challenge.”

But AT&T added that last year, it “partnered with Nokia to offer utilities private, highly secure, reliable, and high-capacity LTE networks for smart grids (and related smart cities applications), using leased C and D Block spectrum. Deployment will require no change to the technical rules governing the spectrum and—according to initial testing—will coexist well with adjacent SDARS and AMT uses. AT&T and Nokia are developing new compliant equipment for this service, and this equipment should be commercially available by the end of this year.”

AT&T said that “the companies are planning both lab and field trials for the coming months; a typical field trial will consist of three base stations and associated customer-premises equipment and will have all the functionality of a full-scale commercial deployment. Commercially, AT&T and Nokia recently have begun to present their solution to utilities, which have shown great interest.

“Despite these efforts, it will not be possible to deploy this solution broadly enough to meet the interim buildout deadline of March 13, 2017,” AT&T added. “Waiver of this interim deadline is, therefore, necessary to prevent the C and D Block spectrum from reverting to the Commission, rekindling the uncertainty—and, perhaps, the controversy—among adjacent users that the Commission settled only a few years ago. Waiving the interim deadline also will afford time for utilities to take advantage of AT&T and Nokia’s innovative new offering, which offers the promise of finally realizing the smart grid goals of the Congress, the Commission, and the Administration. Moreover, waiving the interim deadline presents the best near-term prospect for productively using the C and D Blocks while protecting adjacent spectrum users from harmful interference.”

In the alternative, AT&T asked the FCC to “waive the quantitative interim performance requirement and instead require AT&T to file a comprehensive report detailing its efforts to make productive use of the spectrum.” – Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com