Unlicensed Spectrum

From the fire fighters who died on 9/11 to the rescue workers struggling to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, recent crises have demonstrated that the absence of reliable and interoperable voice and data communications among public safety agencies is an urgent national dilemma. While the need for voice interoperability among first responders is a fundamental and longstanding public safety issue that must be resolved, many communities across the nation have already begun to supplement their voice communication networks with wireless… more

On May 13, 2004, the Federal Communications Commission approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to allow a new generation of wireless devices to utilize vacant television channel frequencies in each market. This so-called TV band “white space” consists of frequencies that are allocated for television broadcasting but are not actually in use in a given area. The FCC’s proposed rulemaking is pending but currently inactive.

The proposed rules are intended to make way for technologies that utilize unlicensed… more

New America Foundation, et al. (NAF, et al.) argued in their Comment that new information technologies are making it economical to allocate large amounts of previously unused spectrum for unlicensed devices without creating harmful interference to incumbent license holders. Incumbent license holders in their comments, however, argue that this technological revolution has not taken place; therefore, the status quo must be preserved in order to prevent harmful interference.

In this Reply Comment, NAF, et al. focus on the Reply Comment… more