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Federal Communications Commission FCC Takes On Wireless Carriers- new US spectrum plan

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:September 25, 2009

The US Federal Communications Commission opened a public consultation on the use of radio spectrum for expanding access to broadband services.

In a public notice released Sept. 23, the commission said it wanted more facts and data. It has already asked about wireless spectrum use in its just-opened proceeding on innovation in wireless, but is now responding to specific comments in its national broadband plan proceeding about the need for more spectrum.

The notice said those comments were echoed in its Aug. 13 broadband workshop on wireless.

Broadcasters have been criticized by some computer companies as inefficient users of spectrum. That was partly behind the push for allowing unlicensed devices in the white spaces between TV channels.

Microsoft says the white spaces – small pieces of unused spectrum in the analog TV band – could be worth over $100bn over 15 years. The software giant, along with Google, Motorola and others, has been a major campaigner for these frequencies to be opened up for unlicensed, broadband wireless usage, which was approved by the FCC last year, subject to anti-interference measures. Since then, however, the excitement over the spectrum has died down as vendors seek to create compliant products and find a business case.

The FCC cited the following examples as some of the reasons to take a closer look at wireless spectrum:

Wireless association CTIA said that the wireless market in the United States now encompasses more than 270 million subscribers, and the vast number of mobile devices also place heavy burdens on networks.
Motorola noted that more than 78 percent of U.S. wireless consumers have a wireless device that is capable of accessing the Internet, and approximately 40 million American consumers are active users of mobile Internet services – a 75 percent increase from two years ago.
According to Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI), a traditional handheld device with average customer usage patterns will consume about 30 megabytes of data in a month; a single smartphone consumes 30 times that amount, and a single connected notebook or laptop computer is consuming 450 times that amount.
Wireless devices are increasingly used to access bandwidth-intensive applications, such as video, Internet gaming and social networking. WCAI noted that these kinds of mobile data applications require bandwidth between 1 and 5 Mbps, compared with 6 to 12 kbps for a mobile voice call.

Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., outlined four main approaches:

Option One: Give the D-block to the public safety community, which would combine it with spectrum already under its control. Localities would lease the frequencies to commercial entities, using the revenue to build the new network. Boucher questioned whether sufficient money could be raised through such leases.

Option Two: Hold another auction of the D-block, but only for commercial purposes, and use the proceeds to help finance construction of an interoperable network utilizing frequencies operated by public safety groups. It is doubtful the auction would cover the build-out costs and unclear where the remaining money would come from, Boucher warned.

Option Three: Auction the D-block to a commercial carrier that would enter in a public-private partnership to create a new safety network. To ensure a successful auction, the FCC would need to address the concerns of commercial providers that led to the 2008 failure, Boucher said.

Option Four: Combine the 10 megahertz in the D-block with the 10 MHz controlled by the public-safety community, and auction off the entire amount for use under a public-private partnership.

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