Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking comment on permitting shared use of the 1675-1680 MHz band. The band is currently allocated for federal weather tracking and monitoring purposes, and the Commission’s proposal would allow for non-federal wireless use of the band while protecting incumbent federal operations. Public Knowledge supports the Commission’s efforts to improve efficient use of spectrum resources, including sharing, in order to meet increasing consumer demand.
The following can be attributed to Phillip Berenbroick, Senior Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge:
“Consumer demand for wireless services continues to grow, and spectrum that can easily be cleared and used for mobile use has been exhausted. Today’s proposal to permit sharing of the 1675-1680 MHz band correctly recognizes the need to more efficiently use scarce spectrum resources to meet this consumer demand, while also ensuring federal users can accomplish their missions. Public Knowledge supports the NPRM and looks forward to weighing in on the details of the 1675-1680 MHz band plan.
“Previously, the FCC has taken positive steps to permit non-federal users to share the 3.5 GHz CBRS spectrum and the 37 GHz band with incumbent federal users. The NPRM is an important step by the Commission to promote efficient spectrum use, and we look forward to working with the Commission on other efforts to share underutilized spectrum, including sharing to allow point-to-multipoint wireless service in the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-Band and ‘use or share’ licensing rules for auctioned airwaves.”
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.