Senator Schatz Commends OET for Progress on Oversight of LTE-U

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Ranking Member of the Senate Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet Subcommittee, commended the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) for working to address concerns with LTE-U. 

Last week, Senator Schatz led a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to call for more oversight on the potential interference LTE-U could have on Wi-Fi.  Following receipt of the letter and in response to comments from the FCC’s Public Notice on the effects of new technologies on unlicensed spectrum, OET Chief Julius Knapp sent a letter today to the LTE-U Forum to ask them to address questions on their technology.

“In our letter to FCC Chairman Wheeler last week, we asked the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology to bring experts together to discuss the concerns raised in the Commission’s Public Notice on LTE-U,” said Senator Schatz.  “Consumers have come to rely greatly on Wi-Fi so it is important that everyone works together to ensure that new technologies can coexist fairly with existing users in unlicensed bands.  I commend the OET’s prompt follow-up, beginning with their letter to the LTE-U Forum today.”

U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) joined Schatz as signatories to the letter sent to Chairman Wheeler last week.

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