Under terms of the Report and Order in ET Docket 96-8, the FCC has announced that it will allow the use of high gain antennas for unlicensed transmitters operating in the 2400 and 5800 MHz Part 15 allocations. These bands are shared with the Amateur Radio Service. Additionally, the Commission has made several changes to the Part 15 rules for the operation of low power transmitters. In spite of the potential for significant interference to Amateur operations in these bands, the American Radio Relay League did not file any comments in this proceeding.

The changes allowed under the new rules are:

• At 902-928 MHz, the FCC is reducing the minimum required hopping channels for frequency hopping spread spectrum systems from 50 to 25.
• At 2400 MHz, the FCC will allow the use of high gain antennas provided that the transmitter output power is decreased by 1 dB for each 3 db of antenna gain above 6 dBi.
• At 5800 MHz , the FCC will allow the use of high gain antennas with no restrictions on the effective radiated power.

These changes are being made so that unlicensed devices may be used for ad hoc long distance communications for applications such as high speed Internet access or links between schools or businesses. The FCC's original proposal prohibited the marketing or sale of high gain unlicensed systems to the general public and would have limited such systems to business or commercial installations installed by professionals. However, in the final R&O, the FCC removed this restriction and anyone is permitted to purchase and install high gain unlicensed systems. Due to the difficulty of installing and aligning microwave links, the FCC expects that most installations would be made by professional installers.

The complete text of the Report and Order is available here.

What Does All This Mean?

This capability could be used to provide high speed Internet links that bypass conventional telephone service. For example, it is nearly impossible today for a residential phone company customer to obtain high speed Internet access to a home simply because the phone companies have no infrastructure in place to deliver high bandwidth connections to homes. Many small businesses are similarly unable to obtain high speed data link services unless they happen to be located in a downtown area served by "fiber to the curb". Big business can affort to install fiber lines direct to their facilities.

The list of companies that filed comments with the FCC in this proposal is a telling hint of the market opportunity that looms for companies willing to build the right products. On the list are Apple Computer, AT&T Wireless, Ericsson, GEC Plessey Semiconductor, Itron, Lucent, Master Lock Company, Metricom, Radio Shack, Rural Cellular Corp., Teletrac, U.S. Cellular, and Rockwell International. Conspicuously absent from the list is the American Radio Relay League who officially represents the interests of Amateur Radio operators using these same frequencies.

You can expect that products and services providing high speed Internet access will come to market in 1998. The demand for high speed Internet access is enormous and will be a prime application. However, judging from the list of companies filing comments, we expect that many commercial applications - including providing backbone links for wireless local phone service - will be created. For many of these players, the opportunity to use unlicensed technology for microwave links will have substantial appeal. Setting up an unlicensed link is substantially lower in cost than providing the engineering and environmental studies required of a licensed commercial installation.

Through this ruling, the FCC has created a new communications frontier that will rapidly fill with new wireless immigrants flocking to the new land. These bands will fill rapidly with numerous new commercial and non-commercial users.

The noise floor within these bands will increase and interference to Amateur operations in the 2400 and 5800 MHz bands will certainly increase. This will be especially troublesome for weak signal operations contemplated in these bands. Realistically, it must be noted that consumer microwave ovens operate in the 2400 MHz bands are already a source of significant interference. Further, the use of high gain antennas can also be used to reduce interference. Rather than sending a signal in all directions, directional antennas can reduce the RF footprint to a specific direction. However, the rules change promises to substantially increase the number of unlicensed devices operating in these bands and to increase their potential to harm Amateur operations.