Posted: 1/4/2010 7:15:42 PM EDT
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Hey guys, I work in the wireless communications industry, and receive industry updates at work. Every so often, I get spectrum related news. would you be interested in me posting some of the more relevant pieces once in a while? I find this stuff interesting, but don't want to waste bandwidth here if no one is interested.
Here is one I received today. Hot Ham specific, but the quote "reallocating spectrum that is being underutilized" leaves me nervous for things to come. Jan. 4 (Bloomberg) –– The U.S. should free "underutilized" airwaves for use by wireless companies such as Clearwire Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp. to increase competition for high-speed Internet services, antitrust regulators said. "The scarcity of spectrum is a fundamental obstacle that the commission should address," the U.S. Department of Justice said in comments submitted to the Federal Communications Commission today. The FCC has for asked for public comment on whether television broadcasters should relinquish some airwaves to meet a surge in demand for wireless high-speed Internet services. The agency must submit a plan for expanding access to high-speed Internet service, or broadband, to Congress by Feb. 17. Wireless services can provide an alternative to Internet providers that use wires, such as cable companies and telephone companies, the Justice Department said in its comments. It said a lack of airwaves, or spectrum, is a constraint on wireless companies including Clearwire, Sprint Nextel, Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile unit "and new start-ups." The Justice Department said there are "unanswered questions" about whether wireless Internet services will be offered at prices to compete with wired Internet services. Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., the two largest U.S. telephone companies, are "major providers" of both wireless and wired Internet services, "raising the question of whether" they will offer mobile broadband as replacements for wireline services, the Justice Department said. 'Looming Spectrum Crisis' FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski cited "a looming spectrum crisis" and raised the idea of reallocating spectrum in an Oct. 7 speech to wireless-company executives at a convention in San Diego. The Justice Department said in its comments today that "reallocating spectrum that is being underutilized" would encourage development of wireless services and "could help" to make them more competitive with offerings sent over wires. Reallocation "should be considered when the total value of that spectrum is significantly greater in a new use than in its existing use," the Justice Department said. Broadcasters have said they need their airwaves for purposes including sending more than one program at a time, and sending high-definition pictures. |
| They've already rolled around the 700MHz....when we gonna start seeing some of that freq. getting used? I live in a rural area, so I would love to start my own W-ISP. But after research, unless you get very high or very licensed... its hard to reach a lot of paying customers with 2.4G and other stuff. |
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The high percentage of television viewers that use cable or satellite instead of broadcast services is causing the FCC to review TV spectrum allocations again. The incredible revenue generated by transferring the former UHF TV channels to cellular phone spectrum speaks for itself. The National Association of Broadcasting (NAB) used to be a powerful lobby in Congress, but the CTA might have them trumped now.
RS |
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For mobile use they should just reallocate the 1800MHz mobile band that's used in ITU regions 1 and 3... there are a lot of devices already in use or widely available that already can access that spectrum.
The two most useful spectrum allocations they could possibly make would be an unlicensed or mixed licensed/unlicensed microwave band for wireless ISP use (that isn't an ISM band shared with 1 billion other devices) and with more useful power limitations. And a usable unlicensed two way communications band in the VHF/UHF spectrum to supplant CB, GMRS, FRS, illegal marine and business band users, etc etc. Pretty obvious that the 700MHz plan was going to turn into a debacle. At least they could do something useful with the now-vacant VHF channels, I'm not aware of any use for them... why not make them available for two-way use? Most of the two-way radio manufacturers already have equipment for that band as it's in use in europe ("mid band") |
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