WASHINGTON—The FCC needs to pump the brakes on its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on unlicensed operations in the 6GHz band, according to comments filed by the National Association of Broadcasters on Friday, Feb. 15.

NAB says that while it supports the FCC’s goal of expanding opportunities for spectrum use, even in the 6GHz band, broadcasters’ need broadcast auxiliary services (BAS) operations in the 6GHz band for coverage of major events and that “there are no ready substitutes available for this spectrum.”

In addition, the NAB indicates that the proposals made by the FCC to attempt to protect these broadcast operations (limiting, unlicensed use to low-power, indoor operation) will actually cause interference, particularly for mobile and low-power BAS operations.

“NAB urges the Commission not to permit unlicensed operations in the U-NII-6 and U-NII-8 bands unless a robust, reliable mechanism is developed to coordinate these operations with licensed BAS uses—including mobile uses,” the NAB wrote in its comments.

The NAB rather encourages the FCC to look at spectrum available in the U-NII-5 and U-NII-7 bands for unlicensed operation barring technical solutions being developed that would reliably protect their operations.