APCO, NPSTC offer different views about sharing 4.9 GHz with utilities, critical infrastructure

“Surely, if DoD is comfortable relying on dynamic sharing techniques to allow safe and reliable sharing of national security-critical spectrum resources and the federal government is looking for additional sharing opportunities, the greater public safety community can have confidence that dynamic spectrum sharing will also work for it,” the Federated Wireless filing states.

By using dynamic spectrum sharing, commercial wireless entities could access the band while the spectrum could still be used to support public-safety initiatives, according to Federated Wireless. During the FCC’s meeting in March, multiple commissioners expressed interest in reallocating the band for commercial use.

“Rather than redesignating the 4.9 GHz band for exclusive commercial use, the Commission should maximize efficient use of the band by permitting shared access for commercial providers on an equal basis with other nonpublic safety entities through dynamic spectrum sharing,” according to the Federated Wireless filing. “Under a dynamic-spectrum-sharing approach, major carriers can utilize the 4.9 GHz mid-band spectrum on an as needed basis without unduly limiting public-safety use of the band.”

But APCO and others noted the fact that the 3.5 GHz spectrum sharing scheme has not been implemented yet, so no one knows how effective it would be in a real-world scenario.

“We haven’t seen a sharing mechanism that has been proven, meaning that public safety would be able to continue to expand its operation and be assured that they’re not going to get interfered with—that they have priority and preemption,” APCO’s Cohen said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “If a mechanism could be developed to enable that, and it is proven in advance of being thrust into a public-safety band, we’d be open to it.”