Washington, D.C. — Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Sam Graves (R-MO), and 36 Members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to raise serious concerns with the FCC’s plan to redirect more than half the 5.9 GHz spectrum band.
In December, the FCC proposed to reallocate more than half of the 5.9 GHz radio frequency band (or Safety Band) to unlicensed operations, such as Wi-Fi. The FCC disregarded the Secretary of Transportation (DOT) Elaine Chao’s letter to Chairman Pai, which stated, “DOT has significant concerns with the Commission’s proposal, which represents a major shift in the FCC’s regulation of the 5.9 GHz Band and jeopardizes the significant transportation safety benefits that the allocation of this Band was meant to foster.” In today’s letter, Members are asking the FCC to reconsider their plan.
“The FCC’s proposal undercuts the potential to prevent many of the 37,000 traffic fatalities each year by impeding the development and deployment of safety-critical technologies,” the Members wrote in their letter to the FCC.
To read the full letter, click here.
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