Battle For The Band: L-band is critical for radio, but aerospace industry needs it, too

By Perry Hoffman

OTTAWA - The broadcasting industry is opposing a plan by Industry Canada to allow fixed and mobile services – in addition to broadcasting – in portions of the L-band. Aerospace players say they want a piece of the band as well to accommodate testing of aeronautical mobile telemetry (AMT). The L-band is divided into three sub-segments: 1435-1452 MHz is used for subscriber radio systems (SRS); 1452-1492 MHz is allocated to digital audio broadcasting (DAB) and has some SRS services; and the 1492-1525 MHz has an SRS and mobile satellite services allocation. This upper part of the band is the least used.The 1452-1492...