Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC Eases the Way for 3G Wireless

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2002 03:01:06 -0500

http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,56268,00.html

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 

Welcome to Wired News. Skip directly to: Search Box, Section Navigation, Content.

Search:

News
Animations
Wired Magazine
HotBot (the Web)

FCC Eases the Way for 3G Wireless

By Michael Grebb  |   Also by this reporter

Page 1 of 1

02:00 AM Nov. 08, 2002 PT

WASHINGTON -- This may go down as the week the federal government took a hard look at its spectrum policy and decided to get medieval on its you-know-what.

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission created a new stomping ground for so-called "advanced wireless services," including next-generation (3G) services such as broadband wireless Internet access.

Story Tools

See also

NextWave Case Goes to High Court

Spectrum Delay: Guess Who Loses?

Spectrum Auction Faces Delay

Mr. Hollywood Lives in Washington

Unwired News: The Next Generation

Everybody's got issues in Politics

Today's Top 5 Stories

Los Alamos on Hot Seat Again

Crooked Path Ahead for Digital TV

Diamonds? Who Cares? Give Me HDTV

FCC Eases the Way for 3G Wireless

Internet2 Pumps Streaming Media

Advanced wireless services sound specific enough, but trying to pinpoint what those services entail is a murky affair.

Specifically, the FCC ordered that about 90 MHz of spectrum (in two 45-MHz swaths) now used by government and commercial players, be designated for everything from boring old voice calls to futuristic Dick Tracy-style wireless wristwatches.

"It's pretty much any service (spectrum licensees) want," said Tom Sugrue, chief of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.

Sugrue noted that certain regulated services -- such as broadcast TV and satellite transmissions -- are out of bounds, but that companies are otherwise free to let their engineers and marketers go nuts.

In addition, carriers will be able to offer services with "mobile devices" such as a PDA that can surf the Internet, or "fixed devices" such as a desktop PC hooked up to a wireless video-conferencing system.

Of course, jamming several different services into contiguous spectrum blocks won't be problem-free.

The most vexing pitfall could be interference among the devices -- each inhaling and exhaling digital bits in different ways and at different rates.

"They've got to make sure that whatever's in that band is a good neighbor," noted Ed Thomas, the Office of Engineering and Technology's chief engineer.

Such issues are bound to be covered in separate FCC proceedings (also launched on Thursday) calling for suggestions from industry and consumer groups for ways to control interference, power and radiation limits, and coordination with Mexico and Canada.

The FCC's new "spectrum flexibility" mantra has another goal: It seeks to quiet critics who have increasingly blasted the feds for policies that critics claim caused auction defaults and continued wrangling over 3G spectrum.

Some of the spectrum had been controlled by the Department of Defense, which for years resisted giving it up to commercial services. But in July the Bush Administration struck a deal to make the spectrum available.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell likened the process of freeing up spectrum to going to war.

"You are slowly becoming the combat force of the FCC," he said, gazing down at staffers presenting the item, "the foxhole fighters that go hole to hole to get these things out."

To be sure, Powell has been gradually preparing the public for a radically different spectrum policy.

In an Oct. 30 speech at the University of Colorado, Powell urged the FCC to break with its 90-year-old spectrum regime.

"It needs a hard look and, in my opinion, a new direction," he said in the speech.

Also on Thursday, the FCC's Spectrum Policy Task Force, an interagency group created in June to study spectrum policy, made its final recommendations.

The group urged the agency to adopt more flexible interference standards, shift to market-based spectrum policies, and even consider allocating some spectrum licenses based on time rather than only space and geography -- in effect licensing spectrum for only certain times of the day or night.

The time-sharing principle, while used in the paging industry, has never been widely applied to spectrum policy, said Bennett Kobb, an independent wireless consultant and author of Wireless Spectrum Finder.

"It's long past due that this be done," Kobb said.

Indeed, many of the task force's ideas, if adopted, could turn U.S. spectrum policy on its ear.

"It's a first step to introducing some major new ideas," Kobb said. "The task force is now recognizing that there's not one model to managing the spectrum. It will give more access to more services and devices that were previously shut out. It's exciting to see."

Have a comment on this article? Send it

More stories written by Michael Grebb

Page 1 of 1

Win a 50" HDTV or a Xerox Printer!

Wired News: Staff | Contact Us

We are translated daily into Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese

© Copyright 2002, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of the Lycos Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Note: Wired News content is accessible to all versions of every browser. However, this browser may not support basic Web standards, preventing the display of our site's design details. We support the mission of the Web Standards Project in the campaign encouraging users to upgrade their browsers. (Read More)