Wireless Blog

More than a year after they were introduced, federal rules intended to keep cell phone towers operating during natural disasters remain in limbo.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday put off deciding on the wireless industry's challenge to the regulations until the Federal Communications Commission gets preliminary clearance for the rules.

After a panel of experts appointed by the FCC pointed out that many cell towers along the Gulf Coast stopped working when they lost power during Hurricane Katrina, the agency proposed in May 2007 that all cell towers have a minimum of eight hours of backup power that would switch on in the event a tower lost its regular energy source.

The loss of power contributed to communication breakdowns that complicated rescue and recovery efforts during the 2005 disaster.

Wireless companies have said the regulations were illegally drafted and would present a huge economic and bureaucratic burden. In particular, they said, the thousands of generators or battery packs required would be expensive and local zoning rules or structural limitations could make installation impossible in some places.

The FCC agreed in October to exempt cell sites that a wireless carrier proved couldn't meet the rules. The FCC would give companies six months to report on the feasibility of installing backup power and another six months either to bring sites into compliance or explain how they would provide backup service through other means, such as portable cellular transmitters.

CTIA-The Wireless Association, Sprint Nextel Corp. and others asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., this year to intervene, saying the exemptions would still leave wireless companies scrambling to inspect and compile reports on thousands of towers.

The appeals court put the rules on hold while it heard each sides' arguments in May.

On Tuesday, it noted that the FCC has yet to get clearance for the rules from...

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TV Technology reports that the FCC has “tentatively concluded” that mobile satellite service (MSS) operators can begin offering their services to the nation’s 30 largest markets before all current tv broadcasters stop using their antiquated 2 GHz microwave links — even if there is a danger of interference.

The FCC proposed that this new rule should become effective Jan. 1, 2009.

The FCC’s plan was simple, make spectrum available by digitizing microwave gear used by tv news trucks — the Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS).

That would make room for Sprint-Nextel’s cellular service (moved from the interfering 800 MHz band), as well as the new AWS band, and the new Mobile Satellite Service band. They could all fit in the 2 Ghz slot, just above today’s cellular phone services at 1.9 GHz.

The FCC implemented the top 30 markets rule as a safeguard against interference between the MSS and incumbent 2 GHz BAS licensees, which were to be relocated (at MSS expense) from 1990-2110 MHz to 2025-2110 MHz to make way for satellite uplink and ancillary terrestrial component operations (ATC).

The “Consensus Plan” also gave Sprint Nextel replacement cellular spectrum in that band. The government took (800 MHz) frequencies away from Nextel after it was discovered new cell towers interfered with police and fire radios. The government “found” frequencies at 2 GHz for Nextel. Sprint Nextel, as per the terms of the Consensus Plan, is footing the bill for replacement digital microwave equipment used by television stations.

That provided space for Nextel cellular service and for Mobile satellite services. By digitizing television microwave gear, more bandwidth was freed up.

But broadcasters have been slow to change.

On April 14, ICO Global Communications launched its North American geosynchronous satellite, ICO-G1. It’s using frequencies that some broadcasters still use.

The FCC is soliciting comments on a timetable and market-by-market approach to facilitate the entry of MSS operators into the 2 GHz band.

• ICO Global Communications has successfully launched its new multimedia satellite. ICO is planning DVB-SH for mobile television to automobiles and mobile computers in the MSS band (2.0/2.1GHz).
• TerreStar aims to provide mobile broadband and satphone services in the L band (1.6 GHz) in a couple of years. In February, Harbinger teamed up with EchoStar and others to pour $300 million into the venture which aims to provide geosynchronous satphone service (with terrestrial repeaters). TerreStar-I will have an antenna almost 60 feet across with up to 500 dynamically-configurable spot beams.

ICO and TerreStar say their satellites are designed with multiple spot beams that can operate independently, and thus concentrate signals to a radius of several hundred miles. They can avoid areas where there is potential interference.

The FCC noted that the spot beams could “provide service in many places while effectively avoiding BAS operations that are not yet relocated.” The FCC stated that the resulting market-by-market approach counter proposal to the top 30 market rule “would reduce the likelihood of interference between MSS and BAS,” though, it conceded, “interference between the two services would not be completely avoided.”

The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) oppose the rule change, as does Sprint.

“Entry of MSS operations into the spectrum before BAS relocation is completed would cause harmful interference to the incumbent operations in the 2 GHz band,” they concluded in a joint April 30 filing.

Sprint noted in its own April 30 comments to the FCC that ICO and TerreStar failed to clear incumbent operations from the spectrum “more than seven years after the commission first ordered them to do so.”

According to ICO, “Sprint and the broadcasters had represented that all along there were multiple factors that have led to these delays, and having the money in place didn’t seem to be one of them.”

TerreStar’s findings assumed receivers would be 19 km (about 12 miles) from a tower in predicting noninterference, a condition unrealistic for cities like New York, Chicago or Washington, D.C., (the ICO model uses a 15 km (9 mile) reference). TerreStar operates on much less power than the ICO system, although it operates at a lower frequency (1.6 GHz) and uses a larger satellite antenna (some 60 feet across).

Related space and satellite news on DailyWireless includes; ICO Deploys 40 Foot Antenna, ICO G-1 In Space, Sprint’s Walkie Talkie: 40 Cities, ICO Wants Its Mobile TV - via DVB-SH, Dish Network Testing DVB-SH, HughesNet’s Spaceway 3 Now Available, AMC-14: Killed by Lawyers?, Satellite Radio Merger Goes to FCC, Spot Beam Sats Multiply, Satphones: Merger Ahead?, Inmarsat + SkyTerra = Spectrum Sharing, AT&T Goes with FLO, What’s Dish Network Planning?, WiMAX TV from NextWave, Italy Testing DVB-SH Mobile TV, Mobile/Handheld TV: Killer App? and Mobile TV War at NAB 2007.