WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission has signaled its intent to look into issuing licenses for frequencies above 95 GHz with recent vote to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order.
“That’s GigaHertz, not MegaHertz — way up there, beyond the highest frequencies that are commonly used today, at least by the private sector,” Peter Tannenwald points out in his latest CommLawBlog entry.
Tannewald says the commission “has proposed to authorize three types of operations: regular licensing, unlicensed systems and experimental licensing.” Also, the FCC proposes “to permit the sale of new equipment during market trials.”
He adds that this is a shift in part driven by ham radio operators, who have long been allowed to operate above 95 GHz.
This is likely good news for those concerned about the spectrum crunch, since the “amount of available bandwidth is enormous; so if the high frequencies can be used, the possibilities for ever-faster wireless broadband and backhaul speeds are significant.”
These moves are also in the context of a vote to propose rules to implement the requirement that the FCC “act on petitions or applications for new technologies and services within one year of receipt.” The commission suggests the Office of Engineering and Technology recommend within 90 days whether “a new technology should be put on a one-year track or processed normally.”
