WASHINGTON — AT&T is one of multiple organizations telling the FCC to “leave well enough alone” the 6 GHz licensed microwave band.
The company says the band “contains about 100,000 microwave links, many of which are carrying critical voice and data traffic, including for the nation’s first responders,” according to fiercewireless.com.
AT&T met recently with FCC staff to discuss its concerns about a proposed expansion of the 5.9125-7.125 GHz band to include unlicensed use. The Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition’s recent comments to the Commission were highly critical of a report by RKF “that was intended to demonstrate that it would be OK to share with existing fixed service microwave users in the 6 GHz band.” That RKF report was submitted on behalf of some very well-known tech names, including Apple, Google, Cisco Systems, Facebook, Qualcomm, Intel and Microsoft, according to the same article.
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International echoed AT&T’s concerns about interference with essential fixed microwave links for public safety and other critical operations last year.