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Home Unlicensed Operations and Emerging Technologies FCC Fine-Tunes Experimental Licensing Rules

FCC Fine-Tunes Experimental Licensing Rules

New changes affect radio astronomy frequencies, emergency service providers, and medical telemetry bands, among others.

Congress has long required the FCC to “ provide for experimental uses of frequencies. ” The FCC does this in part by maintaining an experimental licensing program that lets innovators try out new technologies using equipment that may not comply with the FCC technical rules, in frequency bands in which the users might not otherwise be qualified to operate. An experimental license comes with safeguards and controls. With respect to “conventional” experimental licenses – the only kind available until recently – these safeguards include a careful review, by the FCC’s technical staff, of the proposed operational details, to ensure there will be no harmful interference to other users. If the requested authorization encroaches on frequencies used by the federal government, that review includes similar scrutiny by federal spectrum officials. Despite these hurdles, most requests for these licenses are routinely approved within a few weeks.

Early in 2013, the FCC added three new categories of experimental licenses , while also keeping the decades-old “conventional” category. The newcomers are:

• Program Experimental Licenses , available to: colleges or universities that offer graduate study in engineering; research laboratories; hospitals and health care institutions; and manufacturers that make radio devices or incorporate them into products;
• Medical Testing Licenses , primarily for health facilities conducting clinical trials; and
• Compliance Testing Licenses , for commercial test labs that make a business of assessing a device’s compliance with FCC technical rules.

The 2013 rules also slightly loosened the stringent restrictions on market trials of equipment not yet shown to comply with the technical rules.

Three parties sought reconsideration of various aspects of the new rules. The FCC has now responded .

One petition, filed by our friend Michael Marcus , concerned frequency bands allocated to the “passive” services such as radio astronomy and Earth exploration satellite services. The pre-2013 rules allowed experimental licensees to use these bands if okayed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which coordinates federal spectrum users. The 2013 rule change barred all experimental use of these frequencies.

But now, at Marcus’s suggestion, the FCC has agreed to let both compliance-testing licensees and conventional licensees use the passive bands, subject to FCC and NTIA oversight. This may pose problems, at least insofar as use by conventional licensees is concerned.

Use of these bands for compliance testing is necessary, as the labs must check whether the emissions from candidate devices meet the regulatory limits in these bands. But we question whether it’s a good idea to allow conventional licensees to operate in these bands. Radio astronomers do important scientific work using the most sensitive radio receivers on the planet; increasing the number of potential users in this band can potentially increase the risk of additional interference. If those potential users do not have to operate in these bands, why not continue to keep them out as a precautionary matter? Several recent FCC actions that have already threatened interference to radio astronomy, such as this one from just a few months ago.

Also at Marcus’s suggestion, the re-amended rule includes language that should give the radio astronomers somewhat better protection than they had before 2013: a passive-band applicant must both explain why non-passive bands are unsuitable and acknowledge that long-term operations will have to transition to a non-passive band.

Responding to a petition from Medtronic, a medical device manufacturer, the FCC has agreed to allow entities that provide medical devices for clinical trials to recover costs from investigators without running afoul of the rules that prohibit “marketing” of non-approved devices. At the same time, the FCC denied Medtronic’s request to broaden eligibility for medical testing licenses to include sponsors of, and investigators conducting, clinical studies. The FCC reasons that these parties would lack direct control over the radio equipment being tested.

In earlier filings, Medtronic had noted a disparity with regard to the 401-406 MHz band. This is one of roughly 40 “restricted bands” subject to special limitations because they are home to important and sensitive services – in this case, Earth exploration satellite and meteorological services. The 401-406 MHz band is also used for low-power medical telemetry. The 2013 rules reasonably allow medical testing experimental licensees to operate in the band, subject to certain restrictions, but the band is closed to program licensees, including those that might be developing medical telemetry equipment. In response to Medtronic’s request, the reconsideration order includes a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks comment on whether to open the restricted bands to program licensees under the same restrictions that now apply to medical testing licensees. As always, you can find the comment dates here when they are announced.

Finally, satellite service providers Sirius XM and EchoStar asked for clarification of a requirement relating to program experimental use of critical service bands, i.e., those for commercial mobile services, emergency notifications, and public safety. Program licensees in these bands must take certain precautions, and must give advance notice to potentially affected critical service licensees. Sirius XM and EchoStar wanted the rules to specify that, for purposes of these requirements, the universe of critical service providers entitled to notice includes all participants in the Emergency Alert System. The FCC has now amended the rule accordingly.

The experimental licensing program has been a huge success for decades. Our clients that develop new kinds of equipment routinely apply for these licenses to try out ideas both in the laboratory and in the field. We expect the 2013 rule expansion and the fine-tuning in the reconsideration order to make the program attractive to more users, and look forward to seeing the new technologies, devices, and services that result.

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Part 5 Experimental FAQ

Part 5 experimental licenses are intended for non-federal entities such as commercial companies and universities seeking to conduct non-revenue generating experiments.

Even though the tabular list of frequencies in part 5 grant documents only show transmit information, both transmit and receive information is required to complete the NTIA space data record sheet, and the license may contain conditions related to receive frequencies used as part of the experiment.  The receive frequencies are also included in the necessary ITU filing.  In order to facilitate processing and authorization, information concerning receive frequencies should be included as part of the mission description.

Applicants should file three to six months before a launch integration date, but no earlier than a year.

Yes, you must submit all documents regardless of launch date

Yes, an ITU filing is required any time a request involves communications to or from a satellite.  This requirement stems from our treaty obligations with the ITU.  Article 11.2 of the ITU Radio Regulations states that any frequency assignment to a transmitting station and its associated receiving stations shall be notified to the Bureau if the assignment is capable of causing harmful interference to any other service of another administration, or if the assignment is to be used for international radiocommunication. 

The Space Bureau’s Transparency Initiative webpages on Coordination have information on How to Prepare an ITU Filing .

Consult the Transparency Initiative Experimental License Checklists for Satellites and the Experimental License Checklist for Earth Stations to ensure that your application is complete and that technical information is accurate.  Applications are not accepted or reviewed until all submission materials are complete and accurate. Please review the entire application package before submitting. Double check the accuracy of emission designators, power levels, EIRP, EIRP densities, and ensure that your points of communication are authorized and complete. Make sure that your application includes mission description, ITU filings, Orbital Debris Mitigation Plan and NTIA technical data. Include plans to identify the space station(s) following deployment and whether space station tracking will be active or passive.  Additionally, include whether prior to deployment, the space station(s) will be registered with the 18th Space Defense Squadron or its successor entity.  Most applicants tend to overlook these elements when following the NASA ODAR format, which does not include this information.  For earth stations, include a clear statement indicating the request is for operation of an earth station.

Applications should include a contact person who is available throughout the duration of the experiment, including launch and operation, and who is capable of answering additional questions regarding the mission or technical aspects. If that person does not have authority to sign the application on behalf of the application, then someone with signing authority must sign the application. This scenario can occur for missions in which the contact person is a faculty member, or when a consultant or legal professional is listed as the contact.

Please contact OET for general experimental process inquires or status of pending requests.  They will reach out to SB-ESLD or SB-SLD if needed.

Requests for operations outside of current Commission rules require a clear statement on how the applicant intends to prevent or mitigate any interference to current authorized users in the requested band(s).

If protection of communications links from harmful interference is important to the mission, the applicant may choose to apply under part 25.  Additionally, if an applicant has completed its proof of concept experiment under part 5, it should transition to part 25 for any subsequent operational phase.

Pre-coordination, which takes place prior to filing an application, is helpful if the requested bands are shared with federal users.  NTIA manages a process, which can be found in chapter eight of NTIA’s  Manual of Regulations for Federal Radiofrequency Spectrum Management  (often referred to as the “Redbook”). For additional guidance, please see the Transparency Initiative pages on Coordination . The FCC will engage in the formal coordination with NTIA once an applicant’s part 5 application has been accepted and is under review.

It depends on the type of coordination.  Proof of coordination is required for earth stations operating in bands on co-equal rights with fixed services.  Additionally, if coordination has completed, an applicant may ask that agency to submit on its letterhead evidence that coordination has been completed, or an applicant may provide other supporting documentation.  However, please be mindful of confidentiality rules when submitting documentation.

All satellite operators must register with the 18th Space Defense Squadron or its successor.  The 18th Space Defense Squadron manages the website, space-track.org , that tracks satellites in space and provides conjunction warnings.  Registration information is available at space-track.org and is free of charge.

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