Cable operators are telling the Federal Communications Commission to vigorously defend its conclusion that it can open up the 6-Gigahertz band to unlicensed mobile indoor WiFi without causing harmful interference with broadcast electronic newsgatherers (ENGs), which also use the band.

NCTA-The Internet & Television Association told the FCC in comments that broadcasters had not provided any credible evidence of harmful interference to mobile indoor operations. “The commission can easily dispel [the National Association of Broadcasters’] concerns,” it said, encouraging the regulator “to do so promptly to ensure that American consumers can benefit from the panoply of innovative services and applications that unlicensed access to the 6-GHz band will make possible.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in December upheld most of the FCC’s decision, but did say the agency had not sufficiently responded to a request from broadcasters that it reserve a sliver of the band exclusively for mobile licensees due to potential interference. It asked the FCC to make a better case.

NCTA's comments were in response to that court remand.

NAB Appeals 6-GHz Order

Petitioning the court to reverse the FCC’s decision were AT&T, Lumen Technologies, electric utilities, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO), and the NAB.

Broadcasters had argued for protecting ENG crews already using the band by reserving an 80-MHz sliver for them, saying there was too much risk of harmful interference to that ever-more-crucial service in a time of pandemic.

But FCC engineers concluded that the band could be shared and ENG (and utility companies) protected with the conditions the agency had imposed. All of the commissioners agreed, but at least on the point of a sliver for mobile licensees, the court did not.

NCTA said the FCC should be able to assuage the court's concerns given what it calls the “insignificant” risk of harmful interference. ■

Veniam, a startup focused on what it calls the “Internet of Moving Things” by turning vehicles into mobile WiFi hotspots, was the top vote-getter at the CableLabs Innovation Showcase, an event put on this week in concert with the CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone, Colo.

Veniam, which claims to have tallied 150% more votes than the event’s second-place entrant (a total of eight companies were entered), has developed a turn-key platform that turns cars, buses and other vehicles into moving WiFi hotspots, holding that the idea can help to build “city-scale” vehicular networks that expand wireless coverage and are capable of collecting terabytes of data in urban environments.

WiFi, of course, has become a key component of the cable industry’s wireless strategy, as MSOs continue to build a quasi-public network comprised of millions of hotspots deployed in outdoor and indoor locations as well as inside customer routers.

Veniam, deemed to have the product most likely to succeed at this week's CableLabs event, hopes to work with MSOs as they seek new ways to expand and enhance their WiFi networks. But Veniam, a company founded in 2012, has yet to announce any cable operator deals, but its platform (a mix of hardware, software and “cloud components) is being used to run a network of connected vehicles, including taxis, waste collection trucks and a public bus feet in Porto, Portugal, that delivers free WiFi to more than 210,000 active customers.

"This prestigious recognition by cable industry leaders further validates Veniam's disruptive approach to bring mobility to Wi-Fi," said João Barros, founder and CEO of Veniam, in a statement. "We are very excited to work with the leading cable operators and internet service providers to turn fleets of vehicles into mobile Wi-Fi spots and vehicular mesh networks, thereby generating new business opportunities for the industry."

San Francisco-based Veniam announced last December that it had raised a $4.9 million “A” round led by True Ventures, with participation from Union Square Ventures, Cane Investments and some private investors. Judith McHale, the former CEO of Discovery, and Om Malik, now a partner at True Ventures, are among the company’s board members.