House members ask FCC to postpone action on new WMTS rules

Sixteen members of Congress today asked the Federal Communications Commission to postpone its Aug. 6 consideration of technical rules that would allow unlicensed TV White Space devices to operate on the same bandwidth hospitals use for patient monitoring. “To date, more than 150 hospitals in over 40 states, located in a variety of urban, suburban and rural areas, along with many individual medical professionals, have filed comments with the FCC describing the substantial benefits of Wireless Medical Telemetry Service systems,” the House members said in a letter initiated by Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH). “These letters have identified the significant problems that any interference from unlicensed devices would cause in the hospitals’ ability to monitor patients and the long-term impact that interference would have on health care services generally.” AHA alerted Congress to those concerns Tuesday in a statement submitted for a hearing on FCC oversight.