Greetings. Amidst the sturm und drang of Board issues, CC&R legislation, antenna cases in Poway, California, cropduster legislation in Colorado and donations to ARRL, it is still necessary to keep a hawk eye on the FCC, and we are doing that. Attached are comments as-filed just now by authority of the Executive Committee in a docket that President Craigie, CEO Sumner and I believe is critical for ARRL's participation even though it does not directly threaten Amateur spectrum allocations. Instead, we filed these comments in an effort to protect a principle that is fundamental to our interests: that unlicensed Part 15 devices must, in every case, protect licensed radio services from harmful interference. That is and has for about 50 years been the state of the law, both in terms of reasonable application of Section 301 of the Communications Act and in Section 15.5 of the FCC rules. Briefly, here is the situation: There is one Big LEO (low earth orbit) MSS (mobile satellite service) licensee, which is a company called Globalstar, operating in the band 2483.5 to 2500 MHz. Ten years ago, FCC allowed Globalstar to utilize with this mobile satellite service an "Ancillary Terrestrial Component" or ATC. This is nothing more than a land-based cellular service with handsets on the ground, that works in conjunction with the main MSS satellite system. Wi-Fi and other Part 15 systems are permitted to operate from 2400 MHz up to 2483.5 MHz but they don't go that high because of stringent out of band limits intended to protect Globalstar. Wi-Fi doesn't operate above 2473 MHz for that reason only. Bluetooth operates up to 2480 MHz however. In what I and others perceive as a sleazy spectrum grab, Globalstar said that they wanted to provide more broadband service and proposed a separate ATC band between 2473 and 2483.5 MHz. They said that Wi-Fi wasn't using that segment (without mentioning that Wi-Fi stayed below 2473 MHz to protect Globalstar). FCC took the bait because they are of the view that more broadband spectrum is good and it doesn't matter what other services are stepped on. So far, ARRL doesn't care, because our spectrum isn't threatened. But the problem is that FCC said well, we will propose to allow this ATC in the 2473-2483.5 MHz band as well as in the higher adjacent MSS band, but the ATC operations of Globalstar WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO INTERFERENCE PROTECTION FROM INCUMBENT OR FUTURE PART 15 DEVICES IN THE BAND. That, we can't sit still for. This would abandon not only existing rules and the basic interpretation of a Federal statute that provide the only way that Part 15 devices can be authorized in the first place, but it would set a precedent that it is OK under certain circumstances for FCC to allow Part 15 devices to interfere with licensed services. FCC went near this bad idea in the BPL docket, but they didn't actually say that Part 15 doesn't have to protect licensed services (except mobiles). Here, they would be directly establishing and approving a non-protection situation as an explicit precedent. We can't allow this. If Globalstar's ATC can't fit into this mature allocation at 2473-2483.5 MHz without interference resulting, then FCC shouldn't make the allocation. That, in a nutshell, is what these comments say. Thanks to the Executive Committee for a fast review and approval of these comments and to Kay and Dave for helpful edits to the filing. 73, Chris W3KD Christopher D. Imlay Booth, Freret & Imlay, LLC 14356 Cape May Road Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011 (301) 384-5525 telephone (301) 384-6384 facsimile W3KD@ARRL.ORG