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 SEPARATE  STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  KATHLEEN  Q.  ABERNATHY 
 Re:  Amendments  to  Parts  1,  2,  27  and  90  of  the  Commission’s  Rules  to  License  Services  in  the  216-  220  MHz,  1390-  1395  MHz,  1427-  1429  MHz,  1429-  1432  MHz,  1432-  1435  MHz,  1670-  1675 
 MHz,  and  2385-  2390  MHz  Government  Transfer  Bands,  WT  Docket  No.  02-  08,  Report  and  Order  (adopted  May  16,  2002). 


 Today’s  Order  is  a  substantial  and  important  step  forward  in  providing  additional  spectrum  for  some  essential  wireless  services  that  often  receive  less  attention  that  the  traditional 
 CMRS  industry.  As  we  develop  new  and  innovative  spectrum  management  policies,  we  must  remember  that  one  size  does  not  fit  all.  In  fact,  it  is  imperative  that  we  adopt  a  diverse  and 
 flexible  spectrum  management  approach  that  allows  a  wide  variety  of  services  to  survive,  thrive  and  serve  the  American  people. 


 The  Commission  today  does  just  that.  We  license  some  bands  site-  by-  site,  others  nationwide,  and  still  others  in  52  areas.  The  Commission  licensed  paired  bands  and  unpaired  as 
 well.  Some  licenses  are  5  MHz,  others  only  2  MHz.  The  agency  also  designed  some  bands  to  provide  additional  spectrum  resources  for  private  land  mobile  radio  services.  These  service  rules 
 are  significant  because  many  of  these  licensees  have  unique  safety  and  reliability  needs  that  cannot  be  met  by  traditional  commercial  services.  Similarly  we  chose  to  auction  two  five  MHz 
 bands  as  unpaired  spectrum  blocks  to  allow  new  technologies  that  do  not  use  paired  spectrum  to  enter  the  marketplace.  These  various  approaches  enable  a  wide  variety  of  licensees  to  provide 
 spectrum-  based  services. 
 As  we  work  to  facilitate  a  more  effective  secondary  market,  our  initial  allocations  matter  more  than  they  should  from  a  policy  perspective.  For  today,  we  must  adopt  policies  that  reflect 
 the  way  things  are.  Thus  today,  we  will  need  to  consider  all  shapes  and  sizes  of  spectrum  allocations  and  service  rules  to  serve  the  public  interest. 


 I  also  want  to  emphasize  the  importance  of  the  more-  detailed-  than-  usual  interference  protections  advanced  by  the  parties  and  adopted  today  in  the  1427-  1432  MHz  band.  As  I  said 
 when  we  issued  the  Notice  of  Proposed  Rulemaking  in  this  docket,  “[  t]  he  medical  and  utility  telemetry  communities  privately  crafted  a  solution  that  advances  each  of  their  interests  –  a  job 
 often  better  done  by  the  parties  than  by  government.  There  is  no  question  that  mutual  resolution  of  their  private  interests  greatly  assists  the  Commission  in  assessing  the  broader  public  interest.” 
 The  record  in  this  docket  did  not  produce  a  single  party  that  opposed  the  interference  limits  jointly  advanced  by  the  medical  and  utility  telemetry  communities.  While  I  generally  support 
 flexibility  in  allocations  and  service  rules,  I  cannot  support  flexibility  in  the  face  of  the  identified  public  interest  harms  associated  with  that  approach  for  these  bands.  Wireless  Medical  Telemetry 
 Service  devices  are  used  in  hospitals,  clinics,  nursing  homes,  and  other  health  care  facilities  to  transmit  waveform  and  other  physiological  data  from  patient  measurement  devices  (that  are  worn 
 or  carried  by  the  patient  or  transported  along  with  the  patient)  to  patient  monitoring,  data  distribution  and  data  storage  systems.  One  of  the  main  purposes  of  patient  monitoring  is  the 
 early  detection  of  life-  threatening  developments  so  that  appropriate  and  timely  intervention  can  be  rendered.  Based  on  the  supportive  record,  safety-  of-  life  considerations  and  the  lack  of  any 
 countervailing  commercial  interest,  I  believe  the  detailed  rules  we  adopt  today  to  protect  medical  telemetry  from  harmful  interference  advances  the  public  interest. 
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 Finally  I  am  pleased  that  the  Commission  has  committed  to  issuing  an  NOI  by  year’s  end  to  examine  the  availability  of  wireless  services  in  rural  America.  The  decision-  making  process 
 would  greatly  benefit  from  additional  data  regarding  the  spectrum  being  used,  the  services  being  provided,  and  the  needs  in  these  areas.  In  turn,  the  Commission  has  an  obligation  to  ensure  that 
 our  regulatory  tools  are  effective  in  facilitating  the  efficient  use  of  spectrum  in  rural  regions.  Thus,  secondary  markets,  partitioning  and  disaggregation,  auction  service  areas,  bidding  credits, 
 and  our  other  policies  should  be  closely  reviewed  to  ensure  their  efficacy  for  non-  urban  settings.  This  is  particularly  important  because  wireless  is  poised  to  provide  significant  competition  in 
 rural  areas  where  multiple  facilities-  based  providers  have  not  developed  as  rapidly  in  some  more  densely  populated  areas.  I  look  forward  to  this  proceeding  and  gathering  a  record  that  will 
 improve  our  rural  spectrum  policy  process. 
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