The Federal Communications Commission is looking at reassigning parts of the broadcast spectrum for mobile broadband. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said reallocation would be voluntary, but broadcasters are prepared to defend their turf. The FCC also wants to consider flexibility for other bands and spectrum time-sharing.
The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that it is seeking ways to reassign additional wireless spectrum to foster mobile broadband adoption in the U.S. According to its study released Tuesday, 93 million Americans, representing one-third of the nation's population, do not have high-speed Internet connections in their homes.
The FCC is slated to submit a national broadband plan to Congress on March 17 that will detail a strategy for connecting more of the country to affordable, world-class broadband. To meet that goal, the FCC plans to recover and reallocate spectrum as well as update spectrum policies to reflect 21st century technologies and opportunities, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
"Spectrum really is the oxygen of mobile broadband service," Genachowski said. "Without sufficient spectrum, we will starve mobile broadband of the nourishment it needs to thrive as a platform for innovation, job creation, and economic growth."
Targeting the Broadcast Spectrum
Changing the nation's spectrum allocation is essential if the U.S. is to keep pace with an estimated thirtyfold increase in mobile communications Relevant Products/Services traffic in the years ahead. Among other things, the FCC is eyeing frequencies now used by the nation's broadcasters as a possible source of additional mobile spectrum.
One reason for targeting the broadcast spectrum is that the VHF and UHF frequencies have characteristics that make them particularly suitable for mobile broadband. Under the FCC's proposed Mobile Future Auction, however, any move to reallocate broadcast spectrum would take place as part of a voluntary program under which broadcasters "would be able to continue to serve their communities with free over-the-air local news, information Relevant Products/Services and entertainment, and they would be able to experiment [with] mobile TV," Genachowski said.
Still, broadcasters are prepared to tenaciously defend their turf. "We look forward to working with policy-makers to help expand the rollout of broadband without threatening the future of free and local television, mindful of the fact that local TV stations just returned more than a quarter of our spectrum following our transition to digital," said Dennis Wharton, an executive vice president at the National Association of Broadcasters.
A Flexible Approach
The FCC also wants to apply a flexible approach to selected frequency bands, where the commission's technical and service rules may be holding back the broadband potential of large swaths of spectrum. One proposal involves giving licensees in the Mobile Satellite Service (MSS) and Wireless Communications Service (WCS) bands the flexibility to put the spectrum toward mobile broadband use as well as the option of "voluntarily transferring the license to someone else, who will," Genachowski explained.
He cited the plethora of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi services and devices operating within the unlicensed frequency bands as examples of what can happen when spectrum innovation is encouraged. New ideas such as databases that dynamically enable or revoke access to spectrum at specific times and in particular places may also play a role in easing wireless spectrum constraints, he said.
For example, dynamic database technology could enable entrepreneurs to create new types of devices and ad hoc networks, Genachowski explained. Moreover, the FCC's national broadband plan "will include a recommendation that we invest a sufficient amount in R&D to ensure that the science underpinning spectrum access continues to advance," he said.
However, even assuming that all of Genachowski's proposals pan out, spectrum access "would not keep pace with demand -- not with the way we do things today," noted Lisa Pierce, an independent wireless analyst with the Strategic Networks Group.
"Clearly orders of magnitude of spectral efficiency Relevant Products/Services would need to be achieved," Pierce said. "Smartphones will also need to become a lot smarter -- not just in terms of delivering apps, but also in how they use spectrum."
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