The following discussion on WCS is from FCC 10-82 (May 20, 2010):
The Commission's rules define WCS as a radiocommunication service licensed pursuant to Part 27 of the Commission’s rules in specified frequency bands, including the 2305-2320 and 2345-2360 MHz bands. The Commission established the WCS in February 1997.27 Licensees in this service are permitted to provide fixed, mobile, portable, and radiolocation services. The Commission found that allowing a broad range of services would permit the development and deployment of new telecommunications services and products to consumers. Specific potential services advocated by WCS proponents in 1997 included high-speed wireless Internet access, return links for interactive cable and broadcasting services, mobile data, fixed terrestrial use, and the provision of wireless local loop services. The Commission auctioned 128 WCS licenses in April 1997. In July 1997, the Commission issued licenses to the WCS auction winners.
WCS Blocks A and B
In 1997, the Commission awarded WCS licenses for 2 paired 5-megahertz-wide channel blocks (WCS Blocks A and B) in 52 Major Economic Areas (MEAs) authorizing service on 10 megahertz of spectrum. WCS Block A is comprised of spectrum at 2305-2310 MHz paired with 2350-2355 MHz. The lower band edge of Block A (2305 MHz) is adjacent to a 5-megahertz-wide Amateur Radio Service band at 2300-2305 MHz, and second adjacent to Federal Deep Space Network (DSN) Receivers at 2290-2300 MHz. WCS Block B is immediately above Block A, and is comprised of spectrum at 2310-2315 MHz paired with 2355-2360 MHz. The upper band edge of Block B (2360 MHz) is adjacent to an Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry (AMT) Service band at 2360-2395 MHz.
WCS Blocks C and D
The Commission also awarded WCS licenses for 2 unpaired 5-megahertz-wide channel blocks (WCS Blocks C and D) in 12 Regional Economic Area Groupings (REAGs) separately authorizing service on 5 megahertz of spectrum. WCS Block C is located at 2315-2320 MHz and is adjacent to the lower band edge of the SDARS spectrum at 2320-2345 MHz. WCS Block D is located at 2345-2350 MHz and is adjacent to the upper band edge of the SDARS spectrum.
Although the Commission permitted WCS licensees to provide both fixed and mobile services, it adopted different power and OOBE limits for these two classes of service. For WCS fixed operations in the 2305-2320 and 2345-2360 MHz bands, the Commission adopted a power limit of 2 kW peak EIRP. The Commission also required WCS fixed stations' OOBE to be attenuated below the transmitter power (P) within the SDARS frequencies of 2320-2345 MHz by a factor not less than 80 + 10 log (P) dB. For WCS mobile stations, the Commission adopted a peak power limit of 20-W EIRP and required an OOBE attenuation factor of not less than 110 + 10 log (P) dB within the SDARS frequencies. The Commission adopted these power and OOBE limits, in part, to protect neighboring SDARS operations from harmful interference.
Originally, the Commission's rules required WCS licensees to make a showing of substantial service in their license areas by the end of their initial 10-year license term, which commenced on July 21, 1997. However, in December 2006, the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) granted a 3-year extension of the construction deadline for certain WCS licensees. WCS licensees argued, among other things, that the uncertainty regarding the rules governing the operation of adjacent-band SDARS terrestrial repeaters had hindered WCS equipment development, network design, and facility deployment, and that an extension would allow them to deploy newly developed WiMAX technology in the 2.3 GHz band in the next few years. WTB found that the possibility of WiMAX deployment warranted a 3-year extension of the initial 10-year construction requirement. Thus, the current deadline for meeting the construction requirements set forth in Section 27.14 of the Commission's rules was extended until July 2010 for WCS licensees.
Historical Information on WCS
The following historical information on WCS is from Wireless Spectrum Finder, by Benn Kobb, last published in 2001. Wireless Spectrum Finder is now (c) SpectrumWiki.com.
*****
With a fund-raising mandate from Congress that identified specific bands for auction, the FCC allocated 2305—2320 MHz and 2345—2360 MHz to a flexible new service.
It received the generic placeholder name Wireless Communications Service (WCS) after an internal FCC naming contest failed to attract any non-frivolous entries. The FCC later added 700 MHz spectrum to WCS and renamed it the Miscellaneous Wireless Communications Services (see 746—764 MHz), although the service is still generally called WCS.
The FCC also proposed to add frequencies in the 4.9 GHz band to WCS: spectrum formerly intended for the General Wireless Communications Service (GWCS, see 4.94—4.99 GHz).
Opinions Mean Nothing
FCC auctions chief Jerry Vaughan, presenting WCS to prospective bidders, said, "Here is some spectrum. Do whatever you want with it, with a few very minor exceptions. Our opinions mean nothing 15 seconds after you buy the spectrum."
The April 1997 auction of 128 WCS licenses to 17 winning bidders raised more than $13 million for the Treasury, an amount far less than predicted by congressional budget experts. Some licenses went for as little as $1.00. At this writing, it appears that one of the earliest WCS license winners to place WCS systems in operation is Metricom (see 902—928 MHz).
Various theories about the low receipts emerged. Some charged that the FCC simply had already auctioned more spectrum than the wireless industry could comfortably absorb. Moreover, legislation required the FCC to begin auctioning licenses in these bands no later than April 15, 1997, giving the industry little time to develop equipment or business plans after the WCS allocation order of February 19, 1997. It required the FCC to deposit all funds raised no later than September 30, 1997, ruling out long-term payment plans.
A reason for the relative lack of interest in WCS licenses probably was the FCC's insistence on extremely tight out-of-band emissions limits for WCS transmitters, in order to prevent interference from WCS to reception of the satellite Digital Audio Radio Service (SDARS or DARS) in 2320—2345 MHz. The filtering and shielding necessary to achieve the limits could make WCS devices too unwieldy and expensive to compete with tiny wireless phones. Wireless fixed data, telephone, and entertainment transmission, however, remain a possibility.
"WCS licensees themselves will determine the specific services they will provide within their assigned spectrum and geographic areas," the FCC said. "The services that can be provided, however, will be subject to specific technical rules…to prevent interference to other services. We emphasize that with the current state of technology there is a substantial risk that these rules will severely limit, if not preclude, most mobile and mobile radiolocation uses. Fixed uses will be less severely affected, but still will require equipment that will meet technical standards higher than those used for similar purposes on comparable bands, and therefore may be more costly."
The FCC later relented somewhat and relaxed the out-of-band emissions limits in order to accommodate prospective WCS licensees who wanted to deploy services based on the Personal Access Communications System (PACS), a low-mobility handheld phone standard. No PACS-based WCS systems are operating.
According to Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile, which won major eastern WCS markets for a total of $1.6 million, "some of the potential uses for the new spectrum include data communications, Internet access, and low mobility wireless services for customers who need 'walkaround' wireless access in a limited geographic area, such as a local neighborhood or business campus."
Licensing
The FCC licensed WCS as two 10-MHz channel blocks plus two 5-MHz blocks. "The record suggests that the 10-MHz channel blocks represent the minimum amount of spectrum needed to support certain data and wireless local loop services, including wireless Internet access," the agency said.
"In addition, we believe that providing for 10 MHz of spectrum on a paired basis would allow for the introduction of both one-way and two-way services and would facilitate the implementation of a variety of technologies. In the spectrum adjacent to the satellite DARS band, however, we believe that WCS mobile operations may be prohibitively expensive and technologically infeasible for a substantial period of time."
The WCS channel blocks include A, 2305—2310 MHz and 2350—2355 MHz; B, 2310—2315 MHz and 2355—2360 MHz; C, 2315—2320 MHz; and D, 2345—2350 MHz.
The A and B blocks were licensed in 53 Major Economic Areas (MEAs) and the C and D blocks were licensed in six continental Regional Economic Area Groupings (REAGs), plus six other REAGs for U.S. possessions plus Alaska, Hawaii, and the Gulf of Mexico.
Like other holders of FCC licenses for exclusive territories, WCS licensees can partition, or assign parts of their geographic service areas, and disaggregate portions of their licensed spectrum to other entities, including those that did not participate in the auction. These geographic partitioning and spectrum disaggregation rules, "while not a substitute for licensing directly by the Commission, nevertheless will help to eliminate market entry barriers…by providing smaller, less capital-intensive areas and spectrum blocks which are more accessible by small business entities," the FCC said.
WCS licensees were granted the most liberal construction, or build-out requirement ever adopted by the FCC. Licensees are simply required to provide substantial service to their service area within 10 years. "Given the undeveloped nature of equipment for use in this band and the technical requirements we are adopting to prevent interference, we are concerned that strict construction requirements might have the effect of discouraging participation in the provision of services over the WCS spectrum," the Commission said.
It suggested that substantial service could include four links per million population for fixed WCS services, or 20 percent coverage of the population in the service area for mobile services. Other possible substantial service factors could include specialized or technologically sophisticated service or service to niche markets or unserved areas.
WCS Satellites
In late 1998, WCS Radio Inc. of Menlo Park, California, a venture associated with WCS licensees, applied for FCC permission to use their licenses to provide SDARS service from two geostationary spacecraft in 2310—2320 MHz and 2345—2360 MHz.
The FCC’s WCS rules do in fact contemplate SDARS in some of the WCS spectrum, as one of a number of possible WCS services. In theory, licensees participating in WCS Radio were in a desirable position because they required neither new spectrum allocations, new service rules, nor auctions in order to establish rights to provide SDARS services.
WCS Radio would have provided "up to 100 channels of high quality music and talk radio and innovative data services throughout the contiguous United States," the company told the FCC. "Users in motor vehicles, on boats, in the air, on foot, or in buildings will be able to receive the programming with a low-cost receiver and a small low-gain, omnidirectional antenna. The digital technology combined with a unique scheme of path diversity and time diversity will provide music quality superior to current and proposed terrestrial radio systems and will rival the quality of stereo compact disks."
The company intended to use its WCS frequencies for terrestrial repeaters that would rebroadcast its satellite signal to improve reception. Service was supposed to begin in 2002. But in May 1999, revealing significant, if brief, information about its future intentions, WCS Radio withdrew its proposal from FCC consideration.
"WCSR discovered both that there were more obstacles to launching an SDARS system than anticipated, and that the market for SDARS services was changing," the company said. "WCSR has now determined that terrestrial-based WCS networks could create a more robust and cost-effective system for delivering audio, Internet and streaming services to handheld and mobile devices than could a satellite system operating under the restraints imposed by WCS licensees."
The 2305—2310 MHz portion of the WCS allocation is shared on a secondary basis with Amateur Radio, one of the few places in the spectrum where ham operators are supposed to share with auction winners.
***** (End of historical information from Wireless Spectrum Finder)
|