Progress Report (Oct 04, 2001)

0041-EX-ML-1999 Post Grant Documents

Mountain Telecommunications, Inc.

2001-10-11ELS_49174

                   Mitchell F. Brecher
                   (202) 331—3 152
                   BrecherM@gtlaw.com




                                                                        October 4, 2001



                   VIA COURIER



                   Ms. Magalie Roman Salas
                   Secretary
                   Federal Communications Commussion
                   445 12"" Street, SW
                   The Portals
                   Washington, D.C. 20554

                            Re:        Mountain Telecommunications, Inc. Experimental License 6120—EX—PL—
                                       1998 as Modified on April 10, 2000 (0041—EX—ML—1999)

                   Dear Ms. Salas:

                            Transmitted herewith on behalf of Mountain Telecommunications, Inc. are an
                   original and four (4) copies of its annual progress report regarding its operations pursuant
                   to the above—referenced Experimental License to operate in the 3.4 GHz band to serve
                   customers located on the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community at Scottsdale,
                   Arizona. If there are questions regarding this report, please communicate directly with
                   undersigned counsel.

                                                                        Sincerely,



                                                                        Mitchell F. Brecher
                                                                        Counselfor Mountain Telecommunications, Inc.

                   ce:      Mr. James Burtle




                                                                 GREENBERG Trauric, LLP
                                         800 Conngcticut Avenuzr, N.W. Suite 500 Wasuincton, D.C. 20006
                                                    202—331—3100       Fax 202—331—3101.    www.gtlaw.com
Miami   NEw York   Wasnuincton, D.C.     ATteanta    PnirabpeEirpHia    Tysons CornEr      CHmicaco   BostoN   ProENIX   WirmincTtON   Los AmcEues   Denver
                            SAo Pauro      Fort LaupeErDaLE       Boca Raton     West Parm BEacit      ORLANDO—   TaALLAHASSEE


Saddleback Communications
 4A Division ofthe Sait River Pima—Maricopa Indian Community
                                                                                                      MT
                                                                                  Mountain Telecommunications, Inc. * ®




                                      10190 E McKellips Road, Scottsdale, Arizona, 85243

                                      Tel : 480 850 7000 / 7500       Fax : 480 850 7010 / 7599

       James Burtle                                                                                   October 3, 2001
       Chief — Experimental Licensing Branch
        Federal Communications Commission
       445 12" Street SW
       Washington, DC 20054

       Dear Mr. Burtle
       We are pleased to present the third annual progress review under the 3.4GHz Experimental
        License ( 6120—EX—PL—1998 ) granted by the FCC on 22"" September 1998 and modified on 10°"
       April 2000 ( 0041 —EX—ML—1999 ). We continue to provide a full quality "wireline equivalent" service
       via Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) to approximately 300 customers on the Sait River Pima
       Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC) while we negotiate the acquisition of the incumbent copper
       grid from Quest (formerly US West). Many of these customers were previously unable to obtain
       any service (or an acceptable) service from Quest and it will have taken more than three years for
       the Community to implement its chosen policy of taking over the responsibility for telecom—
       munications services for the Community, during which time the FWA system has been the vital
        (and only feasible) solution.

       All 300 current customers continue to be regular users of the servicefor full speed fax or modem
       access, and we have introduced an additional three RF bearers to increase the airlink capacity of
       the system to cope with the data demand. Even so, we occasionally have to restrict data access in
       order to manage our radio capacity efficiently because of the uncertainty over long—term licensing
       possibilities and the implications for any additional investment in this frequency band.

       As with the previous two years‘ reports, we have not observed any interference from other
       spectrum users (e.g. airborne radars) over the past twelve months, and have not been notified of
       any interference to other spectrum users as a result of our operation under this License.




                                                               —I —

                           © 2001 Mountain Telecommunications Inc & Saddleback Communications


We were very disappointed to note the Commission‘s decision‘ (based on a letter from NTIA®) to
deny our Petition® for a permanent FWA allocation in the 3400—3700MHz band. We now have less
than two years to develop and implement alternative solutions for continuing to economically meet
the needs of our Community for access to both basic and advanced telecommunications services.

The FWA solution continues to meet our service, technical and cost / commercial expectations,
however, as noted last year, the rest of the World is now deploying later versions of our FWA
system which deliver digital packet—based Internet access at speeds greater than 100kb/s. With the
Commission‘s denial of our Petition, our vendors will not make the necessary upgrades /
investments to make these versions available for our customers, who will remain limited to the
existing 56kb/s analog modem data access.

We continually review the US progress on other FWA and spectrum licensing issues, but still
cannot identify any other appropriate / available wireless solutions for our needs, including Cellular,
WCS, PCS and MMDS and LMDS bands / technologies. We now have no choice but to carefully
limit our further investments in FWA technology, and start planning the deployment of more
expensive and less appropriate solutions based on fiber and copper to meet our service and
community needs. Meanwhile, we will continue with the Experiment as described in the attached
report. Please let us know if there is any additional information or clarification that you require.


Yours Sincerely

Jac/? /Q/PLté)i                                                  mée Scu//?;


(signed)
Jack Pleiter, Chairman & CEO                                     Michael Scully, President
Mountain Telecommunications Inc                                  Saddleback Communications


CC :    Mike Scully                        General Manager, Saddleback Communications
        Senator John McCain                US Senator, Arizona
        William Hatch                      Acting Director, Office of Spectrum Management, NTIA
        Ray Strassburger                   Director, Govt. Relations, Nortel
        James Casey                        Counsel




‘ FCC ET Docket No. 98—237 : First R&O and 2"" NPRM (FCC 00—363) at 14
* See letter dated June 30¢, 2000 from William Hatch (NTIA) to Dale Hatfield (FCC)
‘ See Fixed Wireless Access, Petition for Rulemaking of Mountain Telecommunications, Inc. and Saddleback
Communications Company (filed Sept. 30, 1998).
                                                 13 _

                © 2001 Mountain Telecommunications Inc & Saddleback Communications


   CONCERNING — THE USE OF FIXED WIRELESS ACCESS (FWA)
TO PROVIDE BASIC & ADVANCED TELECOMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
           TO RESIDENTIAL AND SMALL BUSINESS USERS
 IN UNSERVED, UNDERSERVED AND COMPETITIVE APPLICATIONS




                   ExPERIMENTAL LICENSE AcTIVITY
    TO INVESTIGATE THE FEASIBILITY AND VIABILITY OF USING
    FWA "orF—THE—SHELF" soLuTions aT 3400—3700 MHz
            TO MEET SERVICE AND BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
                       AT SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA




                 OctoBER 2000 — SeptEmBER 2001




             Report PREpPARED 8y David TRin«kwon, TRaANsCcOoMM InC


                                   4
                                 — 3 —



  © 2001 Mountain Telecommunications Inc & Saddleback Communications


1) INTRODUCTION
As reported previously, after analyzing their service and business plan requirements, MTI and
Saddleback determined that their needs could NOT be met by existing wireless technologies such
as CMRS*, BETRS®, MMDS® or LMDS". However, they DID find that appropriate solutions existed
"off—the—shelf" outside the USA where regulators, spectrum management authorities and service
providers were already deploying and planning FWA solutions from a number of competitive
vendors. Further research identified that although several vendors, systems and frequency
variants were in existence, a number of important steps had been taken (e.g. within CITEL®, ETSI®,
ITU‘®, Europe, Canada, Mexico and Australia) to harmonize these solutions around parts of the
3400—3700 MHz frequency band. An Experimental License was granted on 22"" September 1998
and the FWA system has been operating continuously at Scottsdale ever since.

This further annual progress report summarizes the activity, results and conclusions reached at
the end of the third year, as required under the terms of the Experimental License. It also identifies
the ongoing tasks to be carried out in the fourth year.

in parallel with this Pilot project, MTI and Saddleback have filed a petition for Rulemaking‘! which
would lead to mutually agreeable sharing arrangements for (parts of) the 3400—3700 MHz
frequency band, and a process for obtaining permanent licenses for FWA applications in rural and
Indian communities. During this past year, the Dept of Defense, through NTIA, filed a
determination‘* that spectrum in this band could NOT be allocated or shared with FWA, and the
Commission accordingly denied the MTI / Saddleback Petition‘*.



* CMRS — Commercial Mobile Radio Service, include both Narrowband Celtular and Broadband Personal
Communications Services (PCS) under FCC Part 22 and 24 Rules, respectively
° BETRS — Basic Exchange Telephone Radio Systems under FCC Part 22 Sub—part F Rules
* MMDS (including MDS) — Multichannel Multipoint Distribution— Service and Multipoint Distribution Service under
FCC Parts 74 and 21 Rules respectively.
‘ LMDS — Local Multipoint Distribution Service under FCC Part 101 Rules
* CITEL — A Telecommunications Consultative Committee of the Organization of American States (OAS). See
particularly the Reports and Recommendations of sub—committee PCC.III (Radio Communications)
° ETSI — European Telecommunications Standards Institute. See particularly the Reports and Recommendations of
Work Group TM4.
 TTU — International Telecommunications Union. See particularly the Reports and Recommendations of Joint
Rapporteurs Group JRG 8A/9B
‘ /d. While the Commission has not assigned a rulemaking number to this Petition, it is available on the FCC Electronic
Comment Filing System (ECFS) under proceeding number PRM98ET.
‘Z[d


I}Id



                                                   —4_

                © 2001 Mountain Telecommunications Inc & Saddleback Communications


2)     OBJECTIVES
In its Experimental License Application, MTI specifically referenced the following types of
operations (per section 5.202 of FCC rules governing the Experimental Radio Service) as being
applicable:
(i)      Development of radio technique, equipment, operational data or engineering data related to
           an existing or proposed radio service.
(i1)       Limited market studies
(ii)       Other types of experiments that are not specifically covered under paragraphs (a) through
           (J) of this section

MTI stated its intention to operate the system under conditions approximating those that would
exist in full—scale commercial deployments of the system, in order to evaluate its technical and
operational viability and its ability to satisfy the telecommunications service requirements of SRP—
MIC members. Specific objectives were also stated in the MTI Application. These are summarized
below, together with a statement of status / progress against each objective.

Mountain Telecommunications Inc. and Saddleback Communications Objectives


1. Demonstrate economic and social benefits of Fixed Wireless Access technology
       Almost 100 community members have now been provided with full quality "wireline" voice, fax
       and modem data service for the first time, at normal wireline tariffs and without payment of
       special construction charges. Prior to FWA these customers either had no telecommunications
       service at their home or place of business, or used cellular telephones, which were found to be
       expensive, unreliable or otherwise unsatisfactory. In addition,

       An additional 200 — 300 customers have been able to choose Saddleback‘s service in
       preference to the incumbent LEC service provided over traditional copper, and in advance of
       Saddleback‘s proposed acquisition of the ILEC‘s plant.

       Over the past year, the usage of fax and 56kb/s modem access to the Internet has continued to
       increase, at times puttinbg strain on the total RF airlink capacity deployed. An additional three
       RF bearers has been added (to the original six) to improve capacity for the data service.

       Evaluate customer acceptance of services provided
       All customers continue to express complete satisfaction with the quality, reliability and feature
       transparency of the services provided via FWA. We peviously reported that few instances of
       interference from a local AM radio station had caused complaints. We have now found and
       implemented an improved RFI filter / noise suppressor in such cases‘*




" Samas Telecom Inc., 3425—F Pomona Blvd, Pomona, CA 91768 (Tel.714—598—0250 Fax 714—594—6212).
           Part No 000—143—626 set for subscriber side AM frequency band 1420 — 1650kHz.
                                                  —5 _

                  © 2001 Mountain Telecommunications Inc & Saddleback Communications


     Other complaints of intermittent or disrupted service during the year have been traced to one or
     more of the following circumstances :


         e   A leaking shroud on a masthead power cable termination blew fuses and caused
             intermittent operation for three of the original six RF bearers, causing interruptions to
             calls in progress and reducing the overall airlink capacity for all users. This situation had
             taken several weeks to develop and diagnose and was resolved by installing new
             cables and terminations to the masthead transceiver unit. An additional masthead unit
             (with an additional three RF bearers) was simultaneously brought into service to
             improve diversity and increase RF airlink capacity.

         e   New construction at a nearby State highway site has added large piles of sand and
             similar material which has caused additional obstruction / reflections on some RF links
             to customers at the Lehi part of the Community (4—5 miles from the base station). This
             has required some minor re—siting or re—pointing of the affected customer CPE antenna
             in order to improve service stability and reliability.


3. Demonstrate progress towards becoming facilities—based CLEC
   At present all wireline customers in the community are served by the traditional incumbent LEC
     (Qwest). Saddleback Communications has been designated by the Community to be the (new)
     incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) and is in the process of finalizing the transfer of the
     wireline facilities and existing customers from Qwest. Meanwhile Saddileback offers the FWA
     (Experimental) service to Qwest customers in the Community, in the manner of a Competitive
     LEC (CLEC). As mentioned above, approximately 200—300 customers are currently served in
     this way. MTI itself provides CLEC service throughout Arizona, using a combination of its own
     facilities and leased fiber or copper through agreements with Qwest and other facilities
     providers. MTI would like to competitively serve customers off the reservation using FWA, but
     this is not permitted by the Experimental License, even though the FWA transmissions
     presently cover large areas of urban Tempe and Scottsdale. With the Commission‘s denial of
     the MTI / Saddleback Petition, MTI will not be pursuing any further FWA CLEC opportunities in
     the foreseeable future.

4.   Evaluate system performance in a real network environment
     Saddleback has trained local native staff who continue to carry out a complete, quality—assured,
     residential installation within 1 — 1.5 hours, including inside wiring and customer discussion
     time. Customer units are also removed or relocated to meet changing service requirements or
     priorities within the Community. Coverage had previously been provided using six pairs of
     {omni—directional) vertically polarized 307kHz radio frequency carriers, each providing ten
     32kb/s traffic time—slots. As the result of last year‘s review / report, we have added an
     additional three pairs of 307kHz radio frequency carriers using a 120 ° horizontally polarized
     antenna‘" directed towards the Lehi part of the Community lands, approximately 3—5 miles from

" Andrew 120 ° Sector base Station Antenna Type LLSD3F—035HA—214, Horizontal Polarization, 14dBi 2 ° beamtilt
                Ser No. 92148—PP (Note : Mounted to give 0.2 ° effective downtilt for nominal six mile range )
                                                 —6—

               © 2001 Mountain Telecommunications Inc & Saddleback Communications


the base station (see revised maps). The Table below summarizes the current installation after
this addition.

                     Base Station Location = N33 ° 28.310 W111 °51.800
           Antenna    Channel    BS Rev MHz    BS Tx MHz       Pol            Direction   Tx Power
              1           0       3425.2800         3475.9680       V           Omni      +24   dBm
              1          18       3430.8096         3481.4976       V           Omni      +24   dBm
              1          36       3436.3392         3487.0272       V           Omni      +24   dBm
              2          6        3427 1232         3477.8112       V           Omni      +24   dBm
              2          24       3432.6528         3483.3408       V           Omni      +24 dBm
              2          42       3438.1824         3488.8704       V           Omni      +24 dBm
              3          11       3428.6592         3479.3472     H 120 °       69 °      +24 dBm
              3          29       3434.1888         3484.8768     H 120 °       69 °      +24 dBm
              3          47       3439.7184         3490.4064     H 120 °       69 °      +24 dBm

          Each Channel is 307. 2kHz (10 x 32kbps traffic slots) in each direction


All other aspects of system performance are fully satisfactory. No instances of harmful
interference to or from other users of the spectrum have been observed or notified.

Investigate service, application and business opportunities
As reported last year, in addition to meeting the needs of unserved residential and business
customers on the tribal lands, the FWA system has enabled Saddleback to address demands
for additional lines not available from the existing Qwest copper grid. Also to serve customers
who prefer Saddleback, but needed switch features which are not available when Saddleback
resells the Qwest service (but are available when Qwest sells the service).

The significance of dst or cable modem—like broadband internet access has increased over the
year, and a few Community customers have subscribed to the wireless internet service offered
by the local Sprint subsidiary using MMDS band licenses. Currently, this competing service
does not offer voice capability and we understand that it is experiencing some capacity
limitations in the greater Phoenix area. MTI / Saddleback is unable to compete with this service
in the light of the denial of its Petition for permanent spectrum allocations, and will be forced to
consider alternative solutions based on fiber and copper distribution.

Develop staff knowledge on technology and associated functions / processes
As reported last year, more than six MTI and Saddleback employees have been trained on the
FWA technology, plus associated installation, planning and network management sub—systems.
Vendor support is periodically provided from locations in Miami (Florida), the United Kingdom,
Canada and Mexico City.

Develop plans for product standardization, market introduction and deployment
These plans are now cancelled, given the resolution of the FCC Petition. Saddleback must now
develop plans for replacing the FWA in due course with more expensive fiber and copper
access solutions.
                                              17—

          © 2001 Mountain Telecommunications Inc & Saddleback Communications


8. Address regulatory aspects of wireless technologies
    MTI and Saddleback continue to urge the FCC, DoD and NTIA to resolve the issues that limit
    their access to appropriate spectrum for the use of these "off—the—shelf" global solutions to
    some long—standing and difficult telecommunications access problems. Meanwhile, they
    continue to monitor progress on domestic US spectrum and product availability (eg ISM, PCS,
    WCS, MMDS, GWCS and 3650—3700MHz bands) to watch for emerging alternative FWA
    solutions.

3) PROJECT DESCRIPTION
A summary of the MTI / Saddleback project was included in the first year‘s report.

4) INTERFERENCE ANALYSIS — Rapio FREqQuUENcIES
A specific objective of this Experimental License is to evaluate any interference to the FWA system
from other users in the band (or emitting spurious signals into the band from lower frequencies). In
particular, airborne high powered military radars such as AWACS. We are also obliged to remedy
(or shut down the system) in the event that the FWA system causes interference to a primary user
in the band (e.g. military radars). Luke AFB is located 30 miles west of the MTI Base Station
(bearing 280°), but we were advised that none of the platforms normally assigned there had any of
the radars which had been analysed by the DoD—Joint Spectrum Center. However, we could
expect AWACS overflights occasionally as planes come over on training flights or with the radars
switched on en route to their assigned missions. We would NOT be told when the flights would (or
had) taken place.

We have not experienced (or been notified of) any interference during the last year and have not
carried out any further tests in this regard. We note that the DoD letter‘® confirms the ".. .relative
lack of use ... [in the Scottsdale areal.. .by relevant DoD systems ..." and therefore conciude that
interference to / from DoD systems in the area is non—existent.


5) MARKET STUDIES
The costs of the FWA solution remain as predicted, and significantly cheaper than the previously
estimated wireline solutions. In the light of the Commission‘s denial of our Petition, we will not be
carrying out any further Market studies.




* 1d See NTIA Letter Attachment : Letter dated March 13‘" 2000 from Arthur Money (Dept of Defense) to
Gregory Rohde (NTIA)

                                                —§—

                 © 2001 Mountain Telecommunications Inc & Saddleback Communications


                                                                                                 APPENDIX A
                                              MAPS & CHARTS
                 Figure 1 : Location of SRP—MIC Community and Base Station
This Figure has been updated to include the additional (directional) 120 °® horizontally polarized
antenna directed towards the Lehi part of the Community lands. The beam center and nominal +60°
paths are indicated. " X " indicates the intended focal point for the Lehi community coverage.




                      Figure 2 : Path Profile for Lehi Coverage (Base Station to " X " )
        BS Elevation = 1204ft   BS Height = 160ft BS Antenna Height = 1364ft   Lehi (°X") Elevation = 1250ft

1.287 i     —                                                                                                  A




1.240 fto   —




1.1 90 Ft   ——f—
            O rmi   0.60 mi


                   Figure 2 : 3D Topographic View of Community Coverage Area




© 1998 Northern Telecom                    —2~—


                               7 ¥\:                                          UBHaiNAL
                                                                               ence
                               d %           umited stares oeprartment or comm
                                             Netional Telecommunications and
                                             Iinformation
                               \h-w} \        Weshington. 0.C. 20230

ET Docket Ns 949—237                                   JN 3 0 XM,
                                                                           PARTE OR LATE FILED


Mr. Dale Hatfield
                                                     s=___—— REceivenp
                                                             |    |
Chief                                                                           !SEP1 9 2000
Office of Engineering Technology                                       Federal Communicor:   20
Federal Communications Commission                                            Office o,hg""‘ Commissio;
Washington, DC 20554

Re:    Petition for Rulemaking — Fixed Wireless Access (FWA): Petition for Allocation
       of Radio Spectrum and Licensing Rules in the 3.4—3.7 GHz Band to Allow
       Camers to Improve Deployment and Reduce Costs Through the Provision of
       Fixed Wireless Access

Dear Mr. Hathield:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has before it a Petition for Rulemaking
on behalf of Mountain Telecommunications, Inc. and Saddleback Communications
Company for allocation of the 3.4—3.7 GHz band for FWA. The band 3400—3650 MHz is
allocated on a primary basis to the Government for radiolocation and acronautical
radionavigation services.

At the request of NORTEL, a limited study between a first—generation NORTEL
manufactured FWA system and various military radar systems was performed by the
Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Spectrum Center (JSC). Results of the study
indicate that significant geographical and frequency separations are necessary for mutual
compatible operation, and that these separations are very dependent upon scenarios and
technical parameters of the systems studied. Other FWA systems are being similarly
evaluated. We are seeking to have the final results of these evaluations as soon as
possible. Therefore, the NORTEL FWA system analyzed may not be representative of
other manufacturer‘s FWA equipment. Currently, there is no way to determine the extent
to which these NORTEL results could or should be universally applied to FWA systems.

DOD is very concerned, as stated in their enclosed letter, about the potentially mutual
harmful effects between present and future radar applications and FWA operations should
the band be reallocated. The radars operating in the band are highly mobile and have
large service areas. We are also concerned about possible effects of our systems on FWA
reliability and performance. In addition, upgrades to some of the existing radar systems
operating in this band are being considered for part of the National Missile Defense
System. This could result in a major expansion of radar operations in this band.
Furthermore, allowing FWA in this spectrum would reduce or eliminate any flexibility to
incorporate new capabilities in these vital radars, potentially leading to compromises in

                                                              No. of Copies rec‘d__O_f_j_
                                                              List A BC DE


the radar design that could adversely affect mission requirements. Loss of access to this
band due to FWA systems would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. military‘s ability to
perform critical surveillance tasks, tcstmg,and training against hostile electronic threats,
both present and in the future.

NTIA cannot concur with this petition for a co—equal primary status that would impose
significant constraints on Government radiolocation systems and eliminate the flexibility
needed to address current and future radiolocation needs. Therefore, NTIA requests the
petition be dismissed.

                                               Sincerely,



                                              irhbboaK
                                               William T. Hatch
                                               Associate Administrator
                                               Office of Spectrum Management

Enclosure: Asst. Secy of Def Ltr, Mar 13, 00

cc: Arthur L. Money, Asst Secy of Defense


                         ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
                                   6000 DEFENSE PENTAGON
                                  WASHINGTON, DC 20301—6000

                                                              March 13, 2000




U.S. Department of Commerce
14 Street and Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20230

Dear Mr. Rohde:

        We are forwarding to you as an enclosure to this letter the Department ofDefense Joint
Spectrum Center‘s (JSC‘s) analysis ofthe feasibility of sharing the 3400—3650 MHz spectrum
between its current government uses and civilian fixed wireless systems. Our conclusion is that
the requisite sepmnondxsmnmmdmhaopfiaunghmnuonsuesoonmusflm:hmgls
not feasible.

      ‘The 3400—3650 MHz fieq\mncy band is being targeted for operation ofFixed Wireless
Access (FWA) systems in many countries. One manufacturer of such systems, Northern
Telecomm (NORTEL), is interested in deploying its system (the "Proximity I" system) within
the United States and its possessions (US&P). This portion ofthe spectrum presently is allocated
for Federal Government radiolocation (3400—3650 MHz) and acronautical radionavigation
(3500—3650 MHz) services on a primary basis. NORTEL sought the assistance ofthe JSC to
determine ifsuch sharing was feasible. TheDcpuunantofDefensewaswinmgtopunmpmm
this analysis and agreed to perform a NORTEL—funded study.

        The January 2000 JSC assssmunrqqndocmmtsthemnm of analytical studies and
live tests. Based upon the JSC assessment and DoD‘s critical ongoing and future uses of this
spectrum, we have concluded that there is a mutual incompatibility between the NORTEL
Proximity I system, as currently configured, and several DoD systems, even when separated by
distances of several hundred kilometers:. Moreover, if the 3400—3650 MHz band were to become
available within the US&P for FWA systems, other potential FWA designs with more sensitive
operating characteristics could increase the potential for interference and thus require even
greater separation distances.

       The DoD radar systems that operate in the 3400—3650 MHz band are some of DoD‘s
most important assets. DoD requires unfettered access to this spectrum over the full
geographical area of the US&P. In the future, these radar systems and their successors are likely
to require access to even more spectrum in order to meet new missions and increased
responsibilities already assigned to them. Additionally, DoD must test, train, and conduct
exercises against foreign threats that operate in this band. In the past, DoD has been able to conduct
such critical operations in this band in the US&P only because the current primary allocation is


            effectively limited to military use. Such training and testing is not possible elsewhere because other
            uses have been designated as primary in the band. Keeping this spectrum available for military
            needs, without limitations, therefore, has become increasinglymportant FWA encroachment on
            mfirspxkumwonldredueeordmmflemyflm’bflnywem&ymmmflyhawmmcorpome
            new capabilities into these vital radars and would make the testing and training needed to meet
            new missions virtually impossible.

                    MountainTel and Saddieback Communications, Scottsdale, Arizona, operators of a
            Proximity I system, were granted a temporary, experimental license to transmit at a Narive
            American community in Arizons. These operators petitioned the Federal Communication
            Commission (FCC) to modify the statms ofthe 3400—3650 MHz frequency band, within the U.S.,
            to a shared primary allocation between non—government fixed service and government
            radiolocation services, stating that they believe that it will be feasible to define reasonabile
            technical coordination rules that will enable operators like MountainTel to deploy in a manner
            thnwxnmtudvuselympamDoD’sopeunonsm&:sband. We disagree with their view. The
            mulmoftthCSmament eport                ind     flmnosmh:sfasible Thereqmred
                  ------




            mor,xfaDuDopamoandmd:ymfaemh,finmle,umw
            emergency call put through an FWA system.

                    In conclusion, DoD is unable to accept any type of operational limitations to its radar
            operstions to ensure compatibility with FWA systems and the JSC assessment report did not
            identify any means of sharing of spectrum that could be imposed without a major negative
            impact on national security. We believe that the current government—only silocation must be




                                                                                                                     a~ t———~—m
            mnnflmedmdFWAoperflonhmwdmnon-govmmemorshuedbmdsforflmdmlom
            of their systems.

                                                               Sincerely,




                                                               Arthur L. Money

            Enclosure




B _ommmad



Document Created: 2001-10-11 10:22:12
Document Modified: 2001-10-11 10:22:12

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