TowerStream Receives Experimental Licenses for 5 GHz Tests

The FCC has issued TowerStream several licenses for testing 5 GHz non-line-of-sight (NLOS) wireless broadband equipment in Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Long Island City, N.Y., which is found in the list of experimental applications granted from April 1, 2006 to May 1, 2006.

In the application, TowerStream said the objective of the system trials described "is to determine the feasibility and optimum equipment configuration requirements for utilization of the 5 GHz band to deploy high-speed NLOS wireless data services to indoor and outdoor installations." The testing in these cities involves the use of time division duplex technology and 6 MHz-wide channels. The testing will use off-the-shelf equipment operating in the 4.9 GHz to 5.1 GHz, 5.47 GHz to 5.725 GHz and 5.725 GHz to 5.850 GHz bands. Not all frequency bands will be used in all cities.

Other experimental grants included licenses issued to the State of California for data collection for weather prediction using frequencies in the 401 MHz region, and a grant to AT&T Corp. allowing operation in the 3.500 GHz band for equipment and propagation testing, using mobile stations in Utah and New Mexico. Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems Corp was granted an experimental license to operate on 39.5 MHz "for test and demonstration of a multichannel SINCGARS Software Defined Radio Waveform" in San Diego, Calif.

For more information, view the applications and full technical specifications for the experimental operation by entering the call sign on FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, Experimental Licensing System Call Sign Search, Web page.