Both NOAA and NASA were vocal this spring about their concerns, but neither agency made experts available this month to comment for this story. In the meantime, President Trump's appointee as FCC chief has sought to cast critics as being against advances in cellular service.
"I think, unfortunately, some folks in the federal government believe, wrongly, that for whatever reason the development of 5G technology in this and other bands shouldn't happen," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai at a Senate hearing last week.
Officials from the telecommunications industry and Pai, who previously worked as associate general counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., say the science agencies are going overboard - that the FCC has placed protections in its licensing requirements to prevent interference.
They also argue that the protections NOAA and NASA seek would hobble the promise of 5G technology.
Pai noted the proposed limit is the same one that the FCC has used for decades. If the federal sciences agencies had an issue with it, he argues, they should have brought it up in 2016 when discussions began.
The FCC and cellular industry have also criticized the studies NOAA and NASA have prepared on the issue, which they describe as "fundamentally flawed" and "inappropriate."
"There were basic things about 5G that were wrong, all of which would basically invalidate the study," said Nick Ludlum, chief communications officer for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Assn., the industry trade group.
That's not how the NOAA sees it. According to Jacobs, the three agencies have been looking at the issue since 2016, and despite one flawed study, new analyses have continued to support the science agencies' more stringent protections.
Both the Navy and NASA have concurred with his agency's analysis, he said, and considering that NASA "sent a man to the moon 50 years ago using calculators, I would certainly trust their input." Critics say the administration's push for high-wave-frequency 5G has divided federal agencies and left the United States without a unified position on 5G deployment as it prepares to negotiate with South Korea, France and China at the U.N.'s World Radio Conference this fall in Egypt - the world's forum for setting international spectrum standards. Most other nations have suggested more protective standards to keep 5G from encroaching into passive weather monitoring bandwidths.
"The situation is an embarrassment," said Jessica Rosenworcel, one of five FCC commissioners, at a Senate hearing this month. She chided her agency for auctioning licenses before the situation had been resolved.
On Tuesday, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat and chairwoman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, and the panel's ranking member, Republican Rep. Frank D. Lucas of Oklahoma, sent a letter to the Department of Commerce and NASA asking for clarification on the issue - noting the contradictory statements made by the different agencies.
"The committee must have the most complete information to inform us about these contradictory statements, and there is limited time available" given the upcoming U.N. meeting and the effects this issue could potentially have on our weather forecasts, wrote Johnson and Lucas.
Experts from both sides agree the matter is not likely to go away soon. More auctions are on the calendar, including several other key bandwidths the science agencies rely on for forecasting. And with the World Radio Conference looming, it'll soon become front and center.
"Radio frequency allocations is a very arcane subject to most people," said Ralph, the Scripps researcher, who also directs the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. "But our weather enterprise skill depends on having the proper protection for certain bands in those frequencies." Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com