Federal Communications Commission	FCC 21-83

STATEMENT OF
ACTING CHAIRWOMAN JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re: 	Amendment of Section 15.255 of the Commission’s Rules, ET Docket No. 21-264. 

There’s a radar revolution happening across our economy.  It used to be that radar sensing technology was devoted mostly to military uses, detecting the presence, distance, and direction of objects by sending out pulses of high-frequency electromagnetic waves.  But there’s been a lot of scientific and technical progress over the past few years and nowadays we are seeing its use in all sorts of commercial applications.  

This is exciting because the innovations are coming fast.  Radar sensing technology is being used to support the development of gesture control, which will allow you to turn on the lights or turn up the heat with a flick of the wrist.  It’s being used to develop new systems for real-time traffic management that can reduce congestion and increase roadway safety.  It’s also being used to develop robotics to improve workplace safety and medical imaging and monitoring technologies to help us lead healthier lives.  Most recently, it has been used to monitor for children left in hot cars and trigger alerts that could save their lives.

There’s a lot of potential—but here’s the thing.  The FCC’s technical rules for the 60 GHz band are holding some of this activity back.  That’s because our rules for this band confine radar manufacturers to overly conservative power limits and other dated requirements.  So today we are taking action to bring our spectrum policies for radar technology up to speed.

Specifically, we are launching a rulemaking that will explore technical changes to our rules for the 60 GHz band to create more opportunities for higher power radar use.  At the same time, we are taking steps to ensure that all this new innovation can coexist with other services already making use of this spectrum, like WiGig.  To this end, a broad group of stakeholders with interests in unlicensed technology and communications device systems have been meeting and discussing these matters under the auspices of the 60 GHz Coexistence Study Group.  This rulemaking benefits immensely from their efforts.  In fact, many of the questions we ask today are informed by their work and we are grateful for it.  

I am also grateful to the team who worked on this creative effort to expand the use of unlicensed airwaves, including Damian Ariza, Bahman Badipour, David Duarte, Michael Ha, Kevin Holmes, Steve Jones, Ira Keltz, Nicholas Oros, Siobahn Philemon, Jamison Prime, Ronald Repasi, Hugh VanTuyl, and Anh Wride from the Office of Engineering and Technology; Catherine Schroeder, Jessica Quinley, and Joel Taubenblatt from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau; Patrick Brogan, Jonathan Campbell, Rachel Kazan, Giulia McHenry, Michelle Schaefer, Donald Stockdale, and Patrick Sun from the Office of Economics and Analytics; Deborah Broderson, David Horowitz, and Bill Richardson from the Office of General Counsel; and Maura McGowan from the Office of Communications Business Opportunities.