Credit: Paul Kirby, TR Daily

A 6 gigahertz band multi-stakeholder group today approved leaders for the group as well as for sub-groups that will tackle three work streams, but it tabled action on approving the scope of work, leaders, and even the title for a fourth subgroup that will focus on contention-based protocol issues.

The four co-chairs of the overall group plan to meet before an Oct. 30 meeting of the overall group to outline a framework for dealing with the outstanding issues regarding the fourth subgroup. Those issues took up the bulk of a 90-meeting held virtually today.

A number of group members expressed opposition to even creating the fourth subgroup, saying that the planned topic of contention-based protocol issues seemed to be out of the scope of the multi-stakeholder group. A proposed title for the fourth subgroup dealing with contention-based protocol “requirements” drew opposition as well. Among those who expressed concerns about the fourth subgroup, which was proposed by the UWB Alliance, were representatives from NCTA, Comcast Corp., Qualcomm, Inc., and Broadcom, Inc.

Representatives of 6 GHz band incumbents were approved as leaders of the overall group and each subgroup. Incumbents have complained about the potential for interference from unlicensed devices as a result of the 6 GHz band order adopted by the FCC in April (TR Daily, April 23).

The four co-chairs of the overall group are Richard Bernhardt, national spectrum adviser for the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association; Edgar Figueroa, chief executive officer of the Wi-Fi Alliance; Don Root, chair of the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council’s Spectrum Management Committee; and Brett Kilbourne, vice president-policy and general counsel of the Utilities Technology Council.

Leaders of the subgroup focused on work stream 1 (the process for harmful interference, detection, reporting, and resolution) are Mark Poletti, director-wireless technology for CableLabs; Tim Godfrey, technical executive for the Electric Power Research Institute; Jason Matthews of the Lake County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office; and Guy Bail, director-AFC for the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International.

Danielle Piñeres, VP and associate general counsel for NCTA, suggested the slate of leaders was “a little bit unbalanced” because it included two public safety representatives. She suggested that there should only be one.

But Jeff Cohen, chief counsel and director-government relations for APCO, said, “This is probably the most important work stream for public safety.” He added that there wouldn’t be “great harm or imbalance” in having two public safety representatives as leaders.

The leaders of the subgroup for work stream 2 (the updating of incumbent information) are Mark Gibson, director-business development and spectrum sharing policy for Comsearch, and Farokh Latif, director-AFC for APCO.

The leaders of the subgroup for work stream 3 (automated frequency coordination (AFC) development and implementation) are Praveen Srivastava, principal wireless engineer II for Charter Communications, Inc.; Andrew Clegg, spectrum engineer lead for Google LLC; and Klaus Bender, VP-engineering for UTC.

The proposed leaders for the work stream 4 subgroup are Tim Harrington, CEO of the UWB Alliance, and Bob Weller, VP-spectrum policy for the National Association of Broadcasters.

The multi-stakeholder group plans to meet next on Oct. 30 from 2-4 p.m. eastern time. —Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

FCC FederalNews SpectrumAllocation