News

WCA: Commercialize Upper Spectrum

WCA member company Tex Enterprises told the FCC that keeping some gigahertz spetrum license free would enable users to sit side by side whether military and civilian or corporate and residential.

by Roy Mark of www.internetnews.com [November 7, 2002]

The Wireless Communications Association (WCA) has endorsed the Federal Communications Commission's proposed new rules to establish commercial broadband service in the upper millimeter-wave spectrum, a move designed to open the airwaves to multi-gigabit-per-second Internet speeds.

According to the Washington-based WCA, a trade association of the wireless broadband industry, the availability of this spectrum "will trigger an unprecedented wave of innovation in millimeter wave technology, and will pave the way for the development of new, efficient broadband service in a variety of markets—both private and government."

In June, the FCC issued the proposed new rules in response to a petition filed by WCA member company Loea Communications on September 10, 2001. Loea, a subsidiary of Trex Enterprises Corp. of San Diego, Calif., is a telecommunications carrier that plans to offer bundled communication services utilizing its gigabit wireless network to link customers' facilities or communication infrastructure within its network or directly to the fiber backbone, bypassing local loop access provided by incumbent telecommunication carriers.

Loea has successfully demonstrated the technology and the capability to communicate at gigabit per second speeds (the equivalent of over 670 T1 lines) in the upper spectrum. The technology is point-to-point fixed wireless that can communicate up to 10 miles and at a data rate of 1.25 Gbps. Loea is also working on its next generation of product with a projected data rate of 12.5 Gbps.

The FCC proceeding, which could take another 6-8 months to complete, is designed to examine the commercial development and growth of spectrum in the 71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz and 92-95 GHz bands. The spectrum space is currently used by military and intelligence agencies.

In addition to high speeds, the technology as demonstrated by Loea utilizes narrow beams of less than a degree wide.

"This creates a new paradigm in that there is no scarcity of spectrum within any geographic area," said Loea President and CEO Louis Slaughter. "Both the government and the private sector can co-exist within the same geographic area."

When the proposed new rules were introduced in June, FCC Commissioner Kevin J. Martin said, "The bands, which have wavelengths of three to five millimeters, have never before been used commercially, and it was previously unclear how these bands could be used. Now, commercial interests are experimenting with different uses for these bands."

When asked what the military had been using these bands for, FCC staff refused to comment, saying the work was classified by the military. But Trex has been researching and developing laser communications for the military for the last 15 years.

Trex has also developed a passive millimeter-wave camera (PMC) which allows thermal imaging (similar to infrared camera images) of personnel behind walls, detection of concealed items (e.g. weapons), and navigation by helicopters and planes in zero-visibility conditions caused by fog and rain.

Trex's laser communications have achieved ground-to-air and air-to-air communication data rates of 1.25 Gbps over distances of 400 kilometers (nearly 250 miles). The company's spinoff technologies from the PMC and laser communications include low-cost steerable antennas for point-to-point and point-to-multi-point communications, enabling technology for broadband wireless networks, and high-performance performance low-noise amplifiers for communications beyond 60 GHz.

Last year, Trex organized Loea to exploit the technologies developed for the military.

The comments filed by WCA represent a "consensus decision by a broad group of industry interests." The comments support the concept of point-to-point licenses without geographic auctions by the FCC, the necessity to retain contiguous blocks of spectrum to allow high speed communications, and a simple registration scheme, even over the Internet, for filing by prospective users of the spectrum.

"I am confident that the high speed wireless services and backhaul enabled by this new spectrum will facilitate significant growth and spread of additional services in license exempt spectrum," said WCA President Andrew Kreig.

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