Greetings. I have marveled at how easily we have survived the National Broadband Plan to date. That premature joy may be coming to an end. Senator Marco Rubio has three proposed bills intended to expand broadband spectrum in the hopper. Here is a snippet about one of them:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he will soon introduce legislation to reallocate up to 200 MHz of spectrum held by the government for commercial wireless use, establish a new spectrum auctions starting in 2018, and make it easier for federal agencies to relinquish their airwaves.
Rubio also intends to introduce legislation geared toward allowing Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz band, as long as it does not interfere with vehicle-to-vehicle communications. The senator is also planning legislation to promote the deployment of wireless infrastructure.
"Our world has gone wireless, and it did not take long to occur," he said in a speech Wednesday, according to The Hill. "That is why I am proposing a wireless innovation agenda with ideas that I believe will ensure the United States is prepared to face the wireless future--an agenda to ensure that Americans can participate in the wireless economy and take advantage of wireless technology to improve their economic well-being."
The 5 GHz band reference is to 5850-5925 MHz, which is Amateur spectrum. FCC has an open proceeding asking about unlicensed broadband in that same band, and there is tremendous opposition to it from the Intelligent Transportation Services folks who are interested in that band for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-roadside communications. Amateur access is in jeopardy and our participation in the FCC docket proceeding was little more than an effort to protect whatever access we have in that segment (which is lightly used by Amateurs as a general matter).
What we don't know yet is where the other 200 MHz of government spectrum is going to come from. It could be up around 3 GHz and it could be 3300-3500 MHz. We will see.....
73, Chris W3KD
Christopher D. Imlay
Booth, Freret & Imlay, LLC
14356 Cape May Road
Silver Spring, Maryland 20904-6011
(301) 384-5525 telephone
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