Spectrum Management
4.9 GHz Working Group
For approximately the past 10 years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has had an ongoing rulemaking proceeding to examine the 4.9 GHz (4.94–4.99 GHz) public safety spectrum band and to modify the rules under which that band is regulated. This proceeding has yielded multiple Notices of Proposed Rulemakings (NPRMs) from the FCC, with multiple rounds of input from NPSTC, others in public safety, and the industry. However, to date there have been no major FCC decisions issued to modify the rules.
On March 23, 2018, the FCC released a Sixth Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) in Docket WP 07-100 regarding the 4.9 GHz public safety spectrum band. Notice of the Sixth FNPRM was published in the May 7, 2018, Federal Register, which set the comment deadline as July 6, 2018 and Reply Comment deadline as August 6, 2018. The Sixth Further NPRM is comprehensive and endorses much of the input from the NPSTC 4.9 GHz National Plan Recommendation filed back in October 2013. It also recognizes the subsequent APCO Task Force Report on 4.9 GHz submitted September 2015.
However, the FCC has indicated its belief the band is lightly used and even before the comments have been received, some of the Commissioners have expressed strong interest in repurposing the band for commercial use and auctioning the spectrum. The Sixth FNPRM has additional details and key questions on both policy and technical issues to which NPSTC plans to respond.
NPSTC re-established its 4.9 GHz Working Group, which has held five calls to discuss and help address the issues raised in the Sixth FNPRM. The input received is being used in crafting NPSTC's Comments, due to FCC by July 6, 2018.
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September 01, 2018
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