According to Carl R. Stevenson, Interim Chair of the IEEE 802.18Regulatory Technical Advisory Group, Sirius has withdrawn its FCC petition regarding out of band (OOB) emissions from 2.4GHz users.

Sifry's Alerts' comments on this development:

This is good - it removes a potential issue that overshadowed the widespread adoption of wireless technologies like 802.11b. I think the FCC would have ruled against them anyway, for the following reasons:

1. They were asking for a legislative fix to the laws of physics. This Sirius request included an OOB limit of -158dbm which is 8 dbm below the thermal noise floor. In other words, the normal evaporation of water into clouds makes more noise in the 2.5GHz spectrum. Besides, other noise generators much closer to the receiver emit a much larger noise profile. The spark emitted from a spark plug is one example.

2. Significant opposition from other established industry players, including Motorola, Intersil, Intel, and others.

3. The FCC's emphasis on reducing the digital divide. The FCC was being asked to decide if it was more important to have high-end radio between cities or cheap, high bandwidth connectivity in low income neighborhoods, and I think the public interest would have won on this one.

So, count one for the good guys today! And don't rub Sirius' nose in it - they did the right thing.