The FCC has this week (May 24) voted in favour of allocating 40 MHz in the 2360-2400 MHz part of the spectrum for use by wireless-based medical devices, described by the regulator last week as medical body area networks or MBANs. The spectrum has been allocated on what the FCC calls a shared, secondary basis.

Leading medical device manufacturers Philips Healthcare and General Electric Healthcare have lobbied for spectrum to be set aside for MBANs. They pushed to share the 2360-2400 MHz spectrum with the aerospace industries which used the radio frequencies for flight testing.

The medical and aerospace industries made a joint pitch to the FCC in 2011. The 2360-2400 MHz frequencies now have a special-purpose designation. The attraction for medical manufacturers is that the frequencies are free of transmissions from Wi-Fi and other sources of high-powered signals.