[FSG-public] 5.9 GHz is open for commercial users

[Kris Kirby]

On Sat, 28 Mar 2020, Bryan Fields wrote:
> I was taken by the speed at which it was granted. WISPA has become 
> very secretive and the industry has become laser focused on getting 
> spectrum.
> 
> These small steps here with the lack of "meaningful response" from the 
> amateur community will be used as the argument to take the band.  
> 5725 to 5850 is unusable now due to the noise floor, and the inability 
> to work with part 15 users.  2.4 GHz and 902 MHz is even worse.

I completely agree with Bryan on this. While I recognize that spectrum 
is a preciously small commodity that the FCC has decided to multitask 
to the breaking point, WISPs were just green-lighted to do what we 
always considered our mission because we sat on the wayside. We didn't 
develop the networks and technology to make it happen because 
manufacturers and distributors were unwilling to work with us, because 
they were scared of the FCC after TWDR interference cases or just 
because they didn't want to. 

The WISP arena has known for a while now that the only way to deliver to 
the last mile with power-limited unlicensed radios is by making smaller 
and smaller sectors with higher gain antennas and intelligently using 
spectrum. This has been an end-run around the upgrade cycle for them.

The focus should have been to enable Cambium and other vendors to work 
at 2.5 GHz in those license-based chunks, or remediate the absolute mess 
made above 3.5 GHz. The FCC absolutely destroyed CBRS above 3.5 GHz with 
a litanty of changes and limits in an manfacturer limited space. 

Throughput is the result of power times bandwidth times modulation 
density. The WISPs know this. Like anyone else, they don't want to 
change unless they have to, and now they have a new playground at our 
expense.

--
Kris Kirby, KE4AHR
Disinformation Architect, Systems Mangler, & Network Mismanager