Stacey Black

Assistant Vice President of Federal Regulatory

Contributions by Stacey Black

A WiFi Router, a Soup Can and an Extension Cord Walk into a Bar…

Posted June 20, 2019

I am sure you have heard many versions of the “walk into a bar” joke, but these three characters, once they get together, can cause some real damage to our critical communications networks, such as preventing a 9-1-1 call from going through. Let me explain. The Federal Communications Commission last fall opened a proceeding to...

The FCC is on a Spectrum Roll

Posted November 15, 2017

Tomorrow, the FCC will vote on an item that allocates 1.7 GHz of radio spectrum to be used for 5th Generation (5G) wireless broadband services. Two spectrum bands will be allocated providing 700 MHz in the 24 GHz band and 1 GHz in the 47 GHz band. A year ago, the FCC allocated 11.65 GHz...

A Step toward an Effective Spectrum Sharing Framework

Posted April 14, 2016

There has been a lot of talk lately about spectrum sharing – Spectrum Access Systems, Dynamic Spectrum Arbitrage, Environmental Sensing Capability, Shared Spectrum Access for Radar and Communications, to name just a few of the discussed approaches. The purveyors of these techniques believe that their technology will change the way spectrum is shared and will...

Supporting Innovation In Unlicensed Bands

Posted October 1, 2015

AT&T recently joined a coalition of high tech companies and wireless operators designed to help educate consumers and policymakers about the benefits of using unlicensed spectrum to enhance speed, service quality and coverage for consumers. Two new unlicensed technologies – LTE-U and LTE-LAA – are being developed to harness the availability of unlicensed spectrum to...

Spectrum Sharing: Let’s Walk Before Running

Posted May 22, 2014

The FCC recently released proposed rules for the 3.5 GHz proceeding, a proceeding that has received a lot of attention as it is the first attempt to apply the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report that promotes the sharing of federal spectrum with non-federal users. The Commission has identified this spectrum...

Spectrum Sharing Models above 3 GHz

Posted August 6, 2013

AT&T and Google have filed a joint letter regarding the FCC’s innovative proposal to use the 3550-3650 MHz band as a way to promote major advances in spectrum sharing and small cells deployment, including “micro cells” and “het-nets.” The 3.5 GHz band, which is presently occupied by federal government radar systems, represents a significant and unique opportunity to experiment with spectrum...

Exploring All Available Tools

Posted January 31, 2013

AT&T is pleased to have recently joined into an MOU with our fellow carriers, Verizon and T-Mobile, and the U.S. Department of Defense to test the viability of sharing 95 MHz of spectrum that is currently used by DoD and other federal agencies. This spectrum is located in the 1755 to 1850 MHz spectrum band, which...