Ericsson said in an ex parte filing in ET docket 18-295 that the FCC should “keep the door open for the possibility of licensed mobile use of spectrum in the upper portion of the 6 GHz band.”
In the filing, which discusses a notice of proposed rulemaking that the agency plans to consider at its Oct. 23 meeting (see separate story), Ericsson said that the draft NPRM suggests that only the unlicensed use will be introduced across the entire band. Ericsson is a firm supporter of unlicensed use of spectrum and produces many products like carrier-grade Wi-Fi and License Assisted Access (LAA). In our comments to the Notice of Inquiry in this docket, we expressed support for the introduction of unlicensed services, on a technology neutral basis, into the 5.925-6.425 GHz band, so long as such services do not cause harmful interference to fixed-service incumbents. That being said, the mobile industry also requires large blocks of licensed spectrum to support 5G — particularly in mid-bands.”
In another filing in the docket, 11 tech companies that are pushing the FCC to open the 6 GHz band to unlicensed use responded “to recent filings by Encina Communications Corp. (‘Encina’), the National Association of Broadcasters (‘NAB’), and the Ultra Wide Band Alliance (‘UWBA’), which lack any substantial engineering analyses or specific regulatory proposals. These filings nonetheless ask the Commission to impose severe and unnecessary restrictions on unlicensed broadband use in the 6 GHz band. This unwarranted regulation would dramatically undermine investment and the utility of the band for consumers and enterprises whose data needs require vast amounts of additional unlicensed mid-band spectrum. Furthermore, the draft NPRM that the Commission released on October 2, 2018 already addresses the interference concerns raised in each of these filings.”
The filing was submitted by Apple, Inc., Broadcom, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Google LLC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel Corp., Marvell Technology Group, Microsoft Corp., Qualcomm Inc., and Ruckus Networks. —Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com
Courtesy TRDaily