The NCTA has filed another ex parte letter with the FCC, claiming that Qualcomm has done nothing to prove the LTE-U and LAA technologies it is backing will not interfere with cable Wi-Fi.
"Qualcomm's attacks fail to refute any of these points," the National Cable and Telecommunications Association wrote. "In Qualcomm's through-the-looking-glass world, PowerPoint presentations and unilateral pronouncements amount to collaboration, and sharing mechanisms that can be unilaterally scaled back or turned off constitute a fair and equitable approach."
The NCTA's letter to the FCC is only the latest in a back-and-forth between the cable industry trade org and Qualcomm. On June 11, the NCTA warned the FCC that proliferation by the wireless industry of LTE unlicensed (LTE-U) and License Assisted Access (LAA) technologies could hurt the cable industry's push into Wi-Fi, which operates in many of the same unlicensed spectrum bands.
Two weeks later, Qualcomm made its own ex parte filing with the agency, which claimed that the San Diego tech company is working to address the NCTA's concerns. It also called the NCTA's claims "misleading and incorrect."
"The record demonstrates that LTE Unlicensed will provide consumers with a vastly improved user experience and fairly share spectrum with Wi-Fi and other uses without any adverse impact," Qualcomm stated in the filing.
In its rebuttal, sent to the FCC today, the NCTA said LTE-U and LAA advocates have "avoided meaningful collaboration through the established IEEE standards-setting process or otherwise." The org also claimed that the tech backers have "failed to disclose critical details about their technologies' sharing approaches," and that the "few" sharing mechanisms that have been disclosed do not adequately protect Wi-Fi users from interference.
"The NCTA is nevertheless confident that a truly collaborative process toward effective sharing is achievable and can yield solutions that will allow LTE technologies to operate fairly in unlicensed bands," the org wrote. "But this process will require Qualcomm and others to recognize the shortsightedness of their ongoing efforts to downplay the serious concerns of consumers and the unlicensed community, and to recognize that the so-called 'sharing solutions' suggested to date are incomplete and insufficient."
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