Telecom & Technology: The Latest From New America

Wireless Pittsburgh

Wireless Future — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:13:00 -0500

Abstract

Many cities are considering the deployment of a wireless metropolitan-area network (WiMAN) based on Wi-Fi technology. Some hope to find the “right” WiMAN policy, but in reality, different policies are appropriate for different cities. City leaders must often balance competing goals, including the desire to maximize the area in which wireless services will be available, to maximize competition among providers, to minimize subsidies from government agencies and non-profit organizations, and to ensure financial sustainability. This paper investigates the extent to which these goals can be met with four basic models: (1) a single citywide monopoly WiMAN provider; (2)… more

Wireless Carterfone

Wireless Future — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:25:00 -0500

Abstract

Wireless carriers in the United States operate as regulated common carriers when providing basic telecommunications services, such as voice telephone service, text messaging and speed dialing to services and content. Remarkably, stakeholders debate whether this clear cut regulatory status requires wireless carriers to provide service to any compatible handset, subject to a certification process to ensure that such use will not harm carrier networks.

Thirty-nine years ago the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established its Carterfone policy establishing such a right for wireline subscribers. Consumers now take for granted the right to purchase their choice of telephones and other devices (e.g., computer modems, answering machines) and to attach them to… more

The Philadelphia Story

adminn — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:12:00 -0500

Joshua Breitbart authored this report. Naveen Lakshmipathy compiled the appendixes, while Sascha Meinrath served as editor.

The Philadelphia story told here is an analysis of one city's efforts to build a municipal wireless network. This report examines how Philadelphia's municipal wireless initiative helped shape the national debate regarding the need for public broadband infrastructure and the impact the project's successes and failures had on the local community. The Philadelphia story holds numerous lessons for decision-makers and regulators and is a powerful tool for understanding the interactions between network implementers and the constituencies these networks are supposed to serve.… more

Unlicensed White Space Devices and Myth of Interference

Wireless Future — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 22:46:00 -0500

"Smart" wireless devices can use the unassigned frequencies between broadcast TV channels to offer wireless broadband and other innovative services. A rulemaking is pending at the FCC (docket 04-186) to permit unlicensed access to this currently wasted spectrum, subject to technical requirements that will protect television reception from interference. Access to the vacant TV channels in each market has been the subject of intense lobbying, yet far too many of the arguments against "white space" devices rely upon misinformation about the technologies and the FCC process that will prevent harmful interference to DTV reception and other incumbent services. … more

Petition for Reconsideration to FCC on Digital Radio Band White Space

Wireless Future — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:09:00 -0400

The FCC should reconsider its decision to allow incumbent radio licensees to expand into neighboring spectrum without imposing additional public interest requirements. The Second Report & Order is premised on the unexamined and unsupported assumption that the Commission is not assigning new spectrum for mutually exclusive commercial uses to incumbent licensees. Because of this erroneous premise, the FCC completely fails to consider a key question of whether the spectrum should be used for alternative purposes, such as noncommercial low power FM (“LPFM”) or unlicensed uses, or auctioned pursuant to Section 309(j).

In addition, the FCC should reconsider its decision because… more

The Feasibility of Unlicensed Broadband Devices to Operate on TV Band 'White Space' Without Causing Harmful Interference

Wireless Future — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 05:55:00 -0400

In May 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to allow a new generation of wireless devices to use vacant TV frequencies (so-called “white spaces”) on an unlicensed basis and thereby promote more effective use of the public airwaves. In October 2006, under bipartisan pressure from Congress, the FCC adopted a First Order and Further NPRM that approved unlicensed use of vacant TV channels for “fixed” broadband deployments, but called for further study on the question of whether “personal” and “portable” low-power devices (such as laptops and iPhone-type PDAs) could also use… more

The Art of Spectrum Lobbying

Wireless Future — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 20:36:00 -0400

Introduction

In the late 1980s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducted a series of lotteries to allocate electromagnetic spectrum (popularly known as the “public airwaves”) for mobile telephone service. More than 320,000 lottery tickets were acquired by spectrum speculators, including dentists, lawyers, accountants, and anyone else willing to devote the time and hire the legal talent necessary to fill out the complicated form to acquire a lottery ticket. Many of the lottery tickets were purchased as part of partnerships, whose members would collectively enter lottery tickets for hundreds of different licenses. For example, in December 1989, the FCC selected the winning… more

Open Access for the 700 MHz Auction

Wireless Future — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 09:37:00 -0400

Overview

In this report, I analyze the competitive effects of recent proposals to reserve a small portion of the upcoming 700 MHz band auction for wholesale, open-access use.[i] Using this license, a wholesale open-access licensee would build out the wireless network, own and operate the cell sites, towers, and radio equipment, and provide transport to the Internet backbone. For the purposes of this report, “open access” means that there would be “no locking and no blocking” by the network operator. That is, there would be no prohibitions against devices that may be connected to the network so long… more

Spectrum Policy for the Emerging Ultrabroadband World

Wireless Future — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:22:00 -0400

Imagine a world with finite spectrum but infinite demand for wireless bandwidth. In such a world, which we shall call the ―wireless ultrabroadband world, what would the wireless telecommunications architecture look like? And what type of property rights regime would accompany it?

No telecommunications architecture following known laws of nature could provide infinite wireless bandwidth. But this paper argues that the architecture that would get closest would be one with very short wireless end user links attached to a wired backbone. It further argues that in such a world the most efficient property rights regime for spectrum management would be… more

Wholesale Open Access and Anonymous Bidding

Wireless Future — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 07:55:00 -0400

Background:

In the coming weeks, the FCC will set the bidding and service rules for the auction of the 700MHz spectrum freed up by the DTV transition—“beachfront” airwaves ideal for the provision of high-speed wireless broadband services. This last big sale of prime spectrum is expected to raise $10 to $20 billion in federal revenue. But far more important to the economy and to consumers is whether this auction promotes broadband deployment and price competition in every part of the country—or, instead, further consolidates the nation's over-priced and under-performing broadband duopoly. … more

Spectrum Auction Breakdown

Wireless Future — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 10:29:00 -0400

Summary of Findings and Recommendation

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auctions can seem arcane and technical, but in fact, auctions for exclusive licenses to use the public airwaves determine the future of American telecommunications. FCC auctions shape the competitive structure of markets and, ultimately, who controls entire industries—from broadcasting, to telephony, to wireless broadband services—that are increasingly central to U.S. productivity growth, consumer welfare, and global competitiveness. These auctions have complex rules, rules which are the subject of study by a branch of economics called game theory. And it is virtually an axiom of game theory that the rules determine who… more

Wireless Net Neutrality: Cellular Carterfone and Consumer Choice in Mobile Broadband

Wireless Future — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 17:00:00 -0500

Issue Update (2-21-2007): VoIP provider Skype has filed a petition with the FCC to ensure that Carterfone rules apply to commercial wireless networks, citing Tim Wu's paper on Wireless Net Neutrality.

Below is an Executive Summary. The full paper is linked below, in PDF format.

Over the next decade, regulators will spend increasing time on the conflicts between the private interests of the wireless industry and the public’s interest in the best uses of its spectrum. This report examines the practices of the wireless industry with an eye toward understanding their influence on innovation and consumer welfare.

In many respects, the mobile wireless… more

Quantifying the Impact of Unlicensed Devices on Digital TV Receivers

Wireless Future — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:30:00 -0500

ABSTRACT

This report presents the preliminary results from a feasibility study regarding the operation of secondary spectrum users within unused television spectrum. It has been hypothesized that television spectrum is underutilized, making it a candidate for dynamic spectrum access. The feasibility of using this spectrum for enabling secondary transmissions is assessed in this work, with a focus on the possibility of unlicensed devices interfering with digital TV reception. Specifically, we investigate the critical operating parameters for developing the technical rules for device operation in bands adjacent to a digital television transmission.

Can Cognitive Radio Operating in the TV White Spaces Completely Protect Licensed TV Broadcasting?

Wireless Future — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:21:00 -0500

This study and report were produced with funding from Microsoft Corporation.

Policy Background

In 2004, the FCC proposed to allow unlicensed wireless devices to utilize vacant television channel frequencies in each market, a rulemaking that is currently in its final stages. The FCC discussed three methods (control signals, position determination, and cognitive radio with dynamic frequency selection) to ensure that unlicensed TV band devices operate only on vacant channels without harmful interference to broadcast TV service. Of these methods, cognitive radio has spurred the most debate. The cognitive radio method uses spectrum sensing and dynamic frequency selection (DFS) to identify… more

Rebuilding America's Productive Economy

adminn — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:04:00 -0500

From its inception as a nation, America's great advantage over its global rivals has stemmed largely from the successful development of its vast interior. The Heartland has been both the incubator of national identity and an outlet for the entrepreneurial energies of both immigrants and those living in dense urban areas.

The term "Heartland" is commonly used to describe the region west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains. This region constitutes the primary focus of this report, although we believe our policy prescriptions also apply to other parts of the country that are culturally… more

From TV to Public Safety

Wireless Future — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 04:41:00 -0400

Abstract

The events surrounding Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 attacks demonstrated that the communications systems used by first responders in the United States are not adequate to meet the challenges of a post-9/11 world. The U.S. system is based on assumptions that local agencies should have maximal flexibility at the expense of standardization and regional coordination, that commercial carriers and municipal systems have little role to play, that public safety should not share spectrum or network infrastructure, and that narrowband voice applications should dominate. Many programs have been proposed to incrementally improve public safety communications systems, but without any fundamental… more

Spectrum Policy Wonderland

Wireless Future — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 21:37:00 -0400

Prepared for delivery at the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference George Mason University School of Law, Arlington, VA September 30, 2006.

Abstract

A debate has raged in the telecommunications policy literature over the comparative merits of the property rights and commons models of spectrum management. In this debate, the property rights model has been treated as essentially identical to the licensed model, and the commons model as essentially identical to the unlicensed model. But in making this linkage the debate has been poorly specified. There are in fact two types of property rights models—an unlicensed and licensed… more

Building Constituencies for Spectrum Policy Change - First Report

Wireless Future — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 08:51:00 -0400

In early 2006, the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, an independent think tank, launched a new initiative to advance its work on public interest spectrum policy by strengthening connections with -- and service to -- diverse public constituencies. NAF enlisted CIMA: Center for International Media Action to convene a group to advise its Wireless Future Program from the perspective of communities that have a vested stake in the debate, but whose interests are not well represented by current policy and industry agendas.

CIMA consulted with many colleagues and allies who work on issues of community media, public… more

Populating the Vacant Channels

Wireless Future — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 02:27:00 -0400

There are vacant channels between broadcast television stations in every media market. This spectrum can be used by unlicensed devices without interfering with television viewing.

An unlicensed allocation of these bands would be the most productive way to use this spectrum. Unlicensed spectrum is a proven way to generate technical and commercial innovation; promotes healthy diversity in markets and regulatory models; and complements the licensed allocation in the nearby 700 MHz band.

A broad cross-section of society would benefit, including rural and inner-city residents seeking affordable Internet access, entrepreneurs starting up digital communication businesses, cities and companies seeking to foster… more

Beyond Censorship

Wireless Future — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 03:47:00 -0400

As the FCC dramatically increases fines for indecency over broadcast TV -- and as Congress and the President raise the fine limits by a factor of ten and threaten to extend decency standards to cable and satellite networks -- the debate over how best to protect children from inappropriate media has reached a fever pitch. The problem is real: a plethora of studies show that repeated exposure to violence, inappropriate sexual content and even repeated advertising for junk food can have a negative, long-term impact on children. And while television is today's primary battleground, it won't be long before most… more