Spectrum Policy Reform: Publications, Events and More

Rural Broadband and the TV White Space

Wireless Future — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:57:00 -0400

In 2004, the FCC initiated a proceeding to determine rules to allow the unlicensed operation of wireless communication devices in unused television band spectrum between channels 2 and 51. These vacant and unassigned television channels, known as the TV “white spaces,” would help make affordable wireless broadband in rural America a reality.

Although wireless is seen as critical to bringing high-speed and affordable broadband access to rural America, build-out and adoption of this service has been slow. Larger wireless providers have focused exclusively on mobile broadband and have not deployed… more

Ex Parte Comments

Wireless Future — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:00:00 -0400

PISC Comments on Re-auction of D Block

Wireless Future — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:15:00 -0400

Michael Calabrese, Eric Schmidt in the National Journal | 'Google on the Potomac'

Communications — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:13:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...[Eric] Schmidt's involvement with New America is personal rather than corporate and predates his move to Google. Still, Google recently collaborated with New America on a topic of mutual interest--wireless policy. Since 2001, New America has run a Wireless Future Program, which describes its mission as promoting "fair and efficient use of the airwaves" to help allow more Americans, especially low-income individuals, to connect to the Internet. Greater Internet access is a goal that Google has also championed, and in May, New America hosted an event at which Google co-founder Larry Page answered questions about its efforts to expand that access...

New America and an array of consumer, minority, and religious groups, as well as Google and a coalition of information-technology companies, want these portions of the spectrum, known as "white spaces," to be made available to the public to increase wireless access to the Internet through, for example, citywide wireless networks, rather than left vacant or auctioned off. Broadcasters oppose the idea, saying that it will interfere with their transmissions.

Michael Calabrese, director of New America's Wireless Future Program, says he invited Page to the event in May in a bid to help counter the greater influence of the broadcasters at the Federal Communications Commission. "The high-tech companies are relatively underrepresented in Washington compared to incumbent interests" such as the broadcasters and the big telecom companies, Calabrese said. "Google generally has supported openness, open networks, and open airwaves, and making Internet access open and affordable..." LINK

Wireless Future event with Larry Page | 'Google’s Larry Page Lobbies for Access to White Spaces'

Communications — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 08:50:00 -0400

New America in the News:
...Addressing the New America Foundation, Page painted a picture of slippage in broadband penetration in the United States, framing his comments in Google's mission to “organize the world's information.” In his talk, Page noted that years of successful usage of wireless microphones in the UHF band suggests that unlicensed devices could similarly operate without causing interference. Page believes that tapping the unused TV white spaces for broadband access would be a tremendous opportunity to bring the Internet to more Americans, especially those in rural areas. Because of the much longer range of the UHF spectrum, wireless broadband access using the TV white spaces could be brought to more consumers using fewer base stations...LINK

Wireless Future Program with Larry Page in Broadcast Engineering | 'Google Pushes for Unlicensed Use of White-Space Spectrum'

Communications — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 13:14:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Google co-founder Larry Page visited Washington last week to lobby for the free, unlicensed use of white space spectrum. In a speech to the New America Foundation, Page used a wireless microphone to downplay interference concerns... LINK

Wireless Future Program event with Larry Page in CircleID | 'Google, the NAB, and a Third Way in 'White Spaces' Debate'

Communications — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 12:23:00 -0400

New America in the News:
Doing this "makes a lot of sense," and would put the nation on "a path where we are using 99 percent of our spectrum, rather than three percent," Page said at the event, titled "Google Unwired” and hosted by the New America Foundation, which has strong ties to Google... LINK

New America's Wireless Future Program Event with Larry Page in BusinessWeek | "Google's White-Space Fixation"

Communications — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:22:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Google co-founder Larry Page made a rare trip to Washington this week. No, he wasn't lobbying for net neutrality or being grilled about Internet censorship in China. It was all about the white spaces -- and Google's growing fixation with wireless communications.

With opposition mounting, Page came to bolster Google's push to gain public access to these white spaces, slivers of wireless spectrum between the broadcast channels used by TV stations. . .

During his May 22 speech to the New America Foundation, a think tank where Google CEO Eric Schmidt is chairman-elect, Page used a wireless microphone to downplay interference concerns. "I don't think there's any technical credence to this at all," he said.

Page also argued that unlicensed white spaces offer a way for the U.S. to catch up with the rest of the world in broadband access. For the second year running, the U.S. ranked 15th among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development in terms of broadband availability, a recent survey found [BusinessWeek.com, 5/22/08]. Today, 10% of Americans still don't have access to DSL or cable broadband, according to consultancy Parks Associates.

Google and others also see white spaces as a way to reignite interest in municipal Wi-Fi networks, many of which are struggling or even being turned off due to financial and service-quality problems. Because the white-space spectrum is more robust, networks using those frequencies would require a fourth to a fifth as many Wi-Fi transmitters to cover an area, according to Michael Calabrese, vice-president of the New America Foundation. Thus, network construction would cost less, while the wireless connections would be speedier.

Should white spaces be approved for unlicensed use, Page hinted, Google might even build some networks for cities with its own funds. "We have money to invest," he said. "We'd probably do it if we could do it on a reasonable scale." Google currently operates a Wi-Fi network in Mountain View, Calif., used by 40,000 people. . .

For the full article, click here.

Wireless Future Program event with Larry Page in CNET | 'Google's Larry Page Goes to Washington'

Communications — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:46:00 -0400

New America in the News:

Google co-founder Larry Page was in Washington Thursday trying to strum up support to open unused broadcast TV spectrum to wireless devices. Page came to D.C. to meet with Congressional leaders and the Federal Communications Commission to talk about allowing device manufacturers to design products that use spectrum known as "white space." This spectrum, which is in the 700MHz band of frequency, sits between analog TV channels and is not being used for anything more than a buffer between broadcast TV channels.

Google and other Silicon Valley companies have been lobbying the FCC and other lawmakers to free up this spectrum, which is ideal for sending data wirelessly over long distances and penetrating through walls. Some of the 700MHz spectrum has already been auctioned off by the FCC earlier this year. And companies such as Verizon Wireless, which won a big chunk of the spectrum, plan to use it to build a next generation wireless broadband network.

Page spoke in the morning at an event hosted by the Washington think tank, the New America Foundation. He emphasized that opening up the white space spectrum for unlicensed use could have a huge impact on the U.S. economy and economies throughout the world, if other countries adopted similar spectral policy. He also said that it made little sense for the U.S. to allow this resource to go unused. LINK

Wireless Future Program event with Larry Page in Washington Post | 'Google's Page Talks Wireless Policy'

Communications — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:52:00 -0400

New America in the News:
...[T]he soft-spoken and baby-faced Page met with key lawmakers including House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and policy makers at the Federal Communications Commission to push an idea to use empty television broadcast spectrum, called white spaces, for high-speed wireless connections by anyone, anywhere in the U.S. That spectrum will be freed up with the conversion of analog to digital television in February 2009. "There's a huge opportunity to make this stuff work," Page said in a discussion this morning hosted by the New American Foundation. LINK

Wireless Future Program event with Larry Page| 'Google's Larry Page goes to Washington'

Communications — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:29:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...Page spoke in the morning at an event hosted by theWashington think tank, the New America Foundation. He emphasized that opening up the white space spectrum for unlicensed use could have a huge impact on the U.S. economy and economies throughout the world, if other countries adopted similar spectral policy. He also said that it made little sense for the U.S. to allow this resource to go unused.

"Spectrum isn't like water," he said. "If you don't use it, it's gone. You can't conserve it..." LINK

Wireless Future Program event with Larry Page in PC World | 'Google's Page: US Government Should Open Up Its Spectrum'

Communications — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:08:00 -0400

New America in the News:

The U.S. government should explore ways to conduct real-time auctions of its vast, and often unused, wireless spectrum holdings, with agencies holding spectrum to get the profits from the sales, Google cofounder Larry Page said Thursday.

Page, speaking in Washington, D.C., repeated Google's position that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission should allow unlicensed wireless devices to access unused spectrum held by television stations. But in addition to TV stations opening up their so-called white spaces, Page called for government agencies to do the same thing.

Google suggested the FCC look into allowing winners of the 700MHz spectrum recently sold by the FCC to conduct real-time auctions as a new business model for spectrum ownership. That idea could be expanded to the federal government, with agencies that sell spectrum on a temporary basis potentially raising billions of dollars, Page said during a speech at the New America Foundation, an independent think tank.

. . .Commercial spectrum holders could also conduct temporary auctions of excess spectrum, added Michael Calabrese, vice president and director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. "There's so much more unused and underutilized spectrum," he said. "That's part of what is wrong with what's been the conventional wisdom in Washington -- that there's spectrum scarcity. In fact, what's scarce is government licenses to use the spectrum." LINK

Wireless Future Program event with Larry Page on WSJ.com | 'Google Co-Founder Makes Pitch for Unused Airwaves Access'

Communications — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:01:00 -0400

New America in the News:

[Google] Co-Founder Larry Page this week made an unprecedented appeal to policy makers for access to unused television airwaves.

Page made his first trip to Washington, D.C., Wednesday and Thursday to meet with members of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission.

Speaking at a public event Thursday, Page said the unused airwaves, dubbed "white space," would hasten the goal of blanketing the country with Internet access.*

Page said current "WiFi" wireless technology that allows Internet connections in many urban areas is less useful in rural parts of the country because its range is limited. Using TV white spaces, "You can really get a lot more range," he said.

"I like to think of it as WiFi on steroids," Page said... LINK (subscription required)

*New America hosted the public event with Larry Page. Further infomation and the event video: http://www.newamerica.net/events/2008/google_unwired

Wireless Future Program event with Larry Page in Broadcasting & Cable | 'Google's Page Fights for White Spaces'

Communications — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:27:00 -0400

New America in the News:
In an event hosted by New America Foundation, "... Page argued that opening up vacant TV spectrum after the February 2009 switch to digital TV will help to spread broadband as well as boost Google's bottom line, calling opening up the white spaces "the most important thing the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] can do this year to promote broadband deployment and tech-sector innovation..." LINK

Google Unwired

Communications — Wed, 21 May 2008 04:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/22/2008 - 9:00am

With Google, Larry Page has gone a long way toward achieving the audacious goal he and co-founder Sergey Brin set for the company: "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible."

One of his current goals is equally ambitious: making the Internet itself accessible, anywhere and anytime, through pervasive and affordable wireless broadband networks. Page has helped lead Google's efforts over the past year to pry open both unused TV airwaves and closed cellular networks to promote wireless broadband competition and consumer choice.

In an interview-style discussion with New America's Michael Calabrese, Page described Google's strategy for expanding access to the Internet and allocating spectrum more efficiently -- and explained why opening the vacant TV channels for unlicensed access after next February's DTV transition is key to promoting broadband deployment and tech sector innovation.

This event was broadcast live on the web through UStream.tv. Online viewers were able to submit questions via both UStream's real-time chat and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society's Question Tool -- that latter list of submitted questions is available here.

A brief compilation of video highlights is can be viewed at right, while the full event video is available below.

Michael Calabrese in Electronic Business News | 'Spectrum ‘Spaces’ Hold Allure for Technology Companies'

Communications — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:44:00 -0400

New America in the News:

...Google proposes setting aside three channels for their exclusive use plus incorporating beacons into the microphones that would send a clear, definitive signal warning all other devices to stay out of its spectrum.

But some high-tech companies fear that Google’s proposal might prompt the FCC to drop its investigation into spectrum sensing technology and therefore eliminate a large part of the potential market for white space devices. “The problem is that requiring geo-location and Internet access makes devices more expensive, and it effectively prohibits a number of applications that the other companies have in mind – for example, networking devices around the home,” said Michael Calabrese, VP and director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, which favors unlicensed use of white spaces... LINK

Michael Calabrese in San Jose Mercury News | Auction Takes 'First Step' to Open-Access Wireless

Communications — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:01:00 -0400

New America in the News:

San Jose Mercury News | Auction Takes 'First Step' to Open-Access Wireless

. . . Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, said Verizon's ability to subsidize certain handsets gives it enormous market power in determining which devices and applications will ultimately become popular with consumers.

But Calabrese said the auction did help achieve the goals of increased openness and innovation. "We need to extend these consumer protections, but this was an important first step," he said. . .

Letter to Chairman Martin Re: Reauction of D Block

Wireless Future — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:43:00 -0400

Notice of Oral Ex Parte Presentation

Wireless Future — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 07:22:00 -0400

Michael Calabrese in RCR Wireless | State's Role in Consumer Protection Bill Pondered

Communications — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:11:00 -0500

New America in the News:

RCR Wireless News | State's Role in Consumer Protection Bill Pondered

. . . "Allowing consumers to purchase unsubsidized handsets without a long-term wireless service plan, and at a fee no higher than subsidized wireless plans, would begin to knock down those obstacles and promote increased consumer freedom in the wireless market," said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation. . .