The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) is calling upon the FCC to seek "a balance between licensed and unlicensed spectrum for broadband wireless services." While acknowledging that unlicensed wireless products and services have a great potential, the TIA said unlicensed services could not replace the ubiquitous, reliable and feature-rich solutions of licensed networks.
The FCC "should endeavor to assign wireless broadband services to bands that will facilitate the creation of economically successful business models while providing ample consideration to existing licensed services. Spectrum below 6 GHz is especially well suited for these services as its propagation characteristics enable coverage of large geographic areas while supporting high broadband data rates."
TIA's specific recommendations on this issues include the following:
- New exclusive allocations of unlicensed spectrum should be made in spectrum not assigned to licensed services.
- If spectrum already assigned to licensed services is allowed by the FCC to be used by devices on an unlicensed basis, technical studies must demonstrate that such uses will not cause interference to licensed services in near or adjacent bands. There must be clear and enforceable interference rules.
- A technical framework should be developed to maximize the utility and efficiency of the unlicensed use, consistent with interference protections.
- The government should pursue harmonized spectrum allocations for national use on an unlicensed or license-exempt basis.
