From left: Amit Nagpal, Aetna Consulting; Andrew Clegg, Google; Peter Pitsch, C-Band Alliance;
John Hunter, T-Mobile; Veena Rawat, GSMA; and Bob Weller, NAB.
Panelists discussing C-Band’s future locked
horns during a panel discussion of the Americas Spectrum Management
Conference this week. The issue is key, as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and
Commissioner Michael O’Rielly said at the conference they hope the
agency acts later this fall on the issue.
Google Spectrum Engineering Lead Andrew Clegg said his company’s plan
concerns allowing shared use of the portion of the C-band spectrum that
remains after a chunk is auctioned for wireless use. “You repack
remaining users, and allow point-to-multipoint use,” in what remains,
Clegg said. “You no longer have the luxury of these huge protection
zones.” He claimed Google’s plan will work and not cause harmful
interference with earth stations.
Broadcasters support the C-Band Alliance plan. CBA Head of Advocacy and
Government Affairs Peter Pitsch called C-band the “goldilocks” of
spectrum for 5G. The CBA plan calls for re-purposing and auctioning 200
MHz of the band, although he said the group is looking at possibly
re-purposing more than that. “The problem is, it’s used to distribute
broadcast programming to nearly 120 million homes. Think of all the
folks getting ESPN and NPR. They still want that. This situation cries
out for a market-driven, de-centralized process, which is what the CBA
plan provides.” He also said the CBA plan offers the quickest path to
free up the spectrum. Continue Reading
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