Opposition to Petitions for Reconsideration Re: Unlicensed Operation in TV White Space

On behalf of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) and the Champaign Urbana Wireless Network ("Petitioners"), the New America Foundation and Public Knowledge respectfully submit the following Opposition to Petitions for Reconsideration of the Commission's TV band white space rules.  We oppose the Petitions by incumbent spectrum users, both authorized and unauthorized, to revisit the Order's central balance between protecting licensed incumbent services and opening this "vast wasteland" of underutilized spectrum on a shared, unlicensed basis to serve the public's interest in new, innovative and competitive broadband devices and services. The Commission has already taken an overly cautious approach to authorizing TVBDs. The additional restrictions in the Petitions opposed herein would eliminate the utility of TVBDs and the potential for national markets, undermining the very success of this rulemaking as well destroying the potential of this band to promote much needed wireless broadband connectivity in areas across the country.

First, several Petitioners request the Commission to reserve channels exclusively for their use, either through exclusive licensing or by effectively prohibiting the operation of TVBDs. Fiber Tower, et. al presents no new argument to justify their proposal to exclusively license six channels in rural areas nationwide, that has already been considered and rejected by the Commission in this proceeding. Considering the propagation characteristics of the band and the alternatives available to Petitioners for wireless backhaul, there is no reason to carve out a special license regime for such a small number of backhaul providers. Further, it is unnecessary and wasteful to reserve additional channels for wireless microphone users, given that the Order already designates an abundance of safe harbors for microphone users and provides even greater protection to Part 74 licensees through registration in the geolocation database.

Second, requests by Shure and other Petitioners to further expand protections for all wireless microphone users are unwarranted and potentially threaten any channel availability for TVBDs in metropolitan areas across the country. Considering the substantial protections afforded by the geolocation database, it is unnecessary and unduly burdensome to require TVBDs with database access to sense, particularly at -114 dBm, or to prohibit the operation of personal/portable TVBDs below channel 21.

Third, the Commission has already gone too far by extending the interference protection to an unknown number of cable headends without even a showing of interference. Because headends were under no prior obligation even to register their location, the Commission has no idea how many headends there are, or where they are located, and thus no means to assess the impact of further protections. Given this uncertainty, the Commission should first collect this information through an additional notice and provide for adequate public input and discussion.

Fourth, requests to further limit the operation and power levels of personal/portable TVBDs on first adjacent channels are unsubstantiated, excessive and would in practice undermine national markets for TVBDs and services. Proposals to limit TVBDs to 10 or 20 mW power are simply efforts to re-argue the already well-settled question of whether the white space spectrum should be opened for new broadband services and innovation.

Fifth, the Commission should not make the certification process for TVBDs more burdensome. Shure's request to open test procedures of geolocation TVBDs to public comments would hamper innovation and rehash issues the Commission has already aired exhaustively.

Finally, the Commission should reexamine the border exclusion zone, given that there is nothing in the Order to explain how it is possible for unlicensed devices to qualify as broadcast devices subject to the treaty when they do not even meet the threshold requirement of requiring licenses under Section 301.

To read the entire filing, please download the PDF below.