4/17 FCC Ex Parte Detailing Arguments For Opening 6 GHz Band for Unlicensed Use

New America's Open Technology Institute filed an ex parte letter detailing meetings held with staff in the offices of Federal Communications Commission ("Commission") Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks regarding the 6 GHz band proceeding and opening it up for unlicensed use. In the meetings, Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America’s Open Technology Institute, 1) highlighted the importance of opening all 1200 MHz for unlicensed use for the future of Wi-Fi, the wireless ecosystem, and the economy; 2) urged the Commission to immediately adopt the 8 dBm/MHz PSD power limit it is considering rather than defer that decision; 3) expressed support for the Commission’s decision to authorize unlicensed access points to operate both outdoors and indoors in the U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 sub-bands, to be controlled by an AFC system, at the standard Part 15 power levels that are currently allowed in the 5 GHz band; 4) recommended a clarification that client device power levels for both low-power indoor (LPI) and standard power use are restricted to 6 dB lower than the maximum transmit power of the associated access point; and 5) expressed opposition to requests from broadcasters to exclude the top 80 megahertz of the band from LPI unlicensed use. The ex parte letter is available here.