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Wireless Companies and Sirius XM to Conduct Demos This Week

Can services continue to coexist on 2.3 GHz?

Tests are planned this week at a northern Virginia airport as wireless companies and Sirius XM hope to settle the question of whether wireless companies would interfere with satellite radio or vice versa.

Questions of interference long have dogged the wireless companies and satcasters, whose spectrum assignments coexist in the 2.3 GHz band. Spectrum at 2305–2320 MHz and 2345–2360 MHz is used for Wireless Communications Service; the satellite digital audio radio service uses 2320–2345 MHz.

Wireless company concerns center around satellite radio’s use of terrestrial repeaters, for which the FCC has not provided final service rules. The wireless coalition wants to make sure satellite radio doesn’t impede wireless-based mobile broadband systems. Sirius XM told the commission in a recent filing it believes these tests will help the agency develop “key operating parameters such as maximum operating power and the out-of-band emissions requirements for mobile transmitters, so that the commission can develop rules to maximize WCS service potential while protecting existing service” to its 19 million satellite radio customers.

The WCS Coalition and Sirius XM each will conduct demonstrations “of potential interference or non-interference at a location near Dulles Airport for FCC staff and other interested parties,” according to the announcement. The coalition and Sirius XM also have submitted various test results to the FCC (WT Docket 07-293) to evaluate the potential for interference from proposed mobile operations.

The demos will be conducted July 28 to 30; if needed, more demos may be conducted on July 31. The testing is open to the public; however in its notice the FCC said space in the test vehicles will be limited because those will be loaded with test gear.

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