Twenty-five organizations sent a letter this week to new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr in opposition to prospective changes to the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) framework. The companies say that the changes would upend the goals for which CBRS was developed.
The letter urges the FCC to not pursue proposals to increase power levels for CBRS devices and relax emissions limits. This, the letter says, “would transform CBRS into yet another high-power, macro cellular band.”
The letter says that the changes “would fundamentally modify CBRS licenses and undermine the Commission’s bipartisan vision for CBRS as a lower-power, small-cell band that supports broad access and numerous applications.”
The changes would jeopardize “the large number of CBRS deployments and wide range of use cases, including rural broadband, competitive mobile services, manufacturing, industrial and enterprise private networks, transportation and logistics connectivity (e.g. airports and shipping terminals), school and library access, and more,” the letter says.
A related issue is that a tremendous amount of work on CBRS would be wasted. The changes “would also imperil the technical progress made over the last decade through collaboration between the Commission, federal agencies, and industry.
“Moreover, these changes would undermine the collaboration between federal stakeholders and industry to determine technical parameters that support commercial operations while protecting critical national security requirements.”
An example of the work that potentially could be at risk is ongoing work by the NTIA, the U.S. Navy and the FCC to expand the unencumbered portion of the spectrum band, which wireless service providers shared with the Navy.
The CBRS letter to the FCC strongly implies that those advocating the change are conducting a power grab. If successful, the letter says the result is that “America’s companies and organizations would be forced to return to the off-the-shelf managed solutions offered by the largest carriers.”
The letter is signed by Amazon.com Services LLC; American Library Association; Barich, Inc.; Benton Institute for Broadband & Society; Cambium Networks, Ltd.; Celona, Inc.; Charter Communications, Inc.; Comcast Corporation; Cox Communications, Inc.; Deere & Company; Digital Global Systems; Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company; Imagine Wireless; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Mediacom Communications Corporation; Miami-Dade Aviation; Department Midcontinent Communications; NCTA – The Internet & Television Association; Open Technology Institute at New America; Public Knowledge; The Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition; Shure Incorporated; Spectrum for the Future; Tarana Wireless; and WISPA – The Association for Broadband without Boundaries.
