Georgia Coalition of Business and Government Leaders Urge FCC to Preserve 5.9 GHz Safety Spectrum

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A coalition of 30 business and government organizations from the state of Georgia have jointly petitioned the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to preserve the currently allocated 5.9 GHz spectrum for connected vehicle safety. The comments were filed in response to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reallocate portions of the spectrum for Wi-Fi.

The coalition, led by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, consists of the Georgia Department of Transportation plus several agencies involved in public transit, City and County leaders from around the state, transportation technology companies, transportation consultants and professional organizations representing the engineering and transportation industries.

In addition to preserving the entire bandwidth for vehicle and pedestrian safety, the comments to the FCC called for allocation of spectrum for cellular vehicle to everything (C-V2X) and dedicated short range communications (DSRC) and for protections from potential interferences from other radios.

“The state of Georgia has taken a leadership role in investing in the safety applications of connected vehicle technology with large deployments underway involving traffic intersections, emergency vehicles and school zones,” said Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan. “We urge the FCC to take a look at Georgia’s investment and results and provide a speedy and positive decision, so we may proceed confidently with expanded deployment.”

The filing pointed out that within the state of Georgia more than 2,600 traffic signals are part of an ongoing deployment of connected vehicle technology affected by the NPRM and that the FCC has granted an experimental license to operate C-V2X in the City of Alpharetta, GA.

A copy of the coalition’s filing and list of signers can be found at https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/1030972490024/Use%20of%20the%205.850-5.925%20GHz%20Band%2C%2019-138%20GA%20Joint%20response.pdf