What is the preferred frequency band for a dedicated allocation?
Because utilities and other critical infrastructure industries are not providing commercial communications services, they cannot use a for-profit business model that repays infrastructure buildout costs through subscriber payments. This system will be a multi-billion dollar capital investment by the nation’s utilities to help meet national energy policy goals. Therefore, spectrum that provides better propagation characteristics, costing less to build, is imperative if utilities are to be able to use it. Ideally, utility spectrum other than microwave networks should be below 1 GHz; however, a sufficient amount of unencumbered spectrum does not exist in that range that has any likelihood of being allocated for our use. Because Canada has allocated 30 MHz of spectrum – 1800-1830 MHz – for its electric grid, and because we have a North American electric regulatory infrastructure, we ask that this allocation be harmonized between both the United States and Canada; that the same spectrum be
