STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL
Re: Amendment of Part 101 of the Commission’s Rules to Facilitate the Use of Microwave for 
Wireless Backhaul and Other Uses and to Provide Additional Flexibility to Broadcast 
Auxiliary Service and Operational Fixed Microwave Licensees; Petition for Rulemaking 
filed by Fixed Wireless Communications Coalition to Amend Part 101 of the 
Commission’s Rules to Authorize 60 and 80 MHz Channels in Certain Bands for 
Broadband Communications, WT Docket No. 10-153, RM-11602
Backhaul is the lifeblood of so much of communications.  It is the essential artery from the 
network edge to the network core.  Traditionally, backhaul has been the province of copper circuits and 
fiber optic lines.  But in a world gone wireless, microwave facilities are now often used to transmit data 
between cell sites and between cell sites and network backbones.  
The steps we take today are technical.  They update microwave backhaul efficiency standards, 
provide higher capacity channels, and allow use of smaller antennas.  They also adopt policies that will 
lower barriers to entry in rural areas where laying new fiber for backhaul can be prohibitively expensive.  
But at their heart, these are rules that promote flexibility.  In doing so, they strengthen the foundation of 
our wireless systems by creating new opportunities to manage the deluge of mobile data that is already 
beginning to rush over next-generation wireless networks.  
Managing this flood will not be simple or easy.  As demand for mobile data grows and the supply 
of unencumbered spectrum decreases, the pressure is on.  We will look to the private sector to innovate 
and create new technologies that will multiply the capacity of our airwaves.  We must also consider 
structured incentives to reward efficient spectrum use by federal authorities.  But this agency, too, needs 
to be quick and agile.  Moving ahead like we do here is a small but critical part of reducing the cost of 
deployment and growing our wireless infrastructure.  To build on efforts like this, I believe it also would 
be prudent to provide a timeline for upcoming wireless auctions.  I look forward to working with my 
colleagues at the agency to make this happen.