Michael Calabrese in eWeek on White Space Devices

Communications — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:40:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Beset with preliminary technical woes and a lack of political traction in Congress and at the Federal Communications Commission, a new organization started up on Dec. 12 to promote the unlicensed use of interference buffer spectrum between television channels.

The Wireless Innovation Alliance, a coalition of technology companies, public interest advocates, think tanks and higher education groups, said it hopes to work with Congress and the FCC to develop regulations for the use of the spectrum known as "white spaces."

Although broadcasters are allocated hundreds of megahertz of spectrum in every U.S. television market, significant chunks are unused, serving as interference zones from other channels. In Boston and Chicago, for instance, almost 50 MHz is fallow. The unused spectrum is considered ideal for wireless broadband because the radio signals penetrate walls and other objects.

Google, Microsoft and other tech firms covet the spectrum as an alternative to telecommunications and cable companies delivering Internet connections. A group led by the companies known as the White Spaces Coalition has been unsuccessfully lobbying Washington all year for approval of unlicensed white spaces devices.

With many of the same players from the coalition in attendance Dec. 12, the new Wireless Innovation Alliance promised a new push.

"Much as telephones, radios and TVs revolutionized telecommunications in previous generations, white space devices will transform every aspect of civil society," Michael Calabrese, vice president of the New America Foundation, said at press conference at the National Press Club. "White space devices provide an innovative platform for a new generation of technologies, services and applications." ...

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New America in eWeek for Filing Text Messaging Petition

Communications — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:49:00 -0500

New America in the News:

Consumer and public advocacy groups are urging the Federal Communications Commission to declare that text messages deserve the same nondiscriminatory treatment by telephone carriers as e-mail and voice messages.

In a petition filed with the FCC on Dec. 11, the groups claim: "Mobile carriers currently can and do arbitrarily decide what customers to serve and which speech to allow on text messages, refusing to serve those that they find controversial or that compete with the mobile carriers' services."

In September, Verizon Wireless was caught blocking text messages from the pro-abortion group NARAL Pro-Choice America. Blaming the initial decision to block the messages on an "incorrect interpretation" of company policy, the nation's second largest wireless carrier quickly reversed its decision.

"This type of discrimination would be unthinkable and illegal in the world of voice communications, and it should be so in the world of text messaging as well," the Dec. 11 petition states.

The petition asks the FCC to act immediately to declare that text messaging services, including those sent to and from short codes, are governed by the anti-discrimination provisions of the Communications Act. According to the petition, "The Commission should make it explicit that these discriminatory actions will not be tolerated in the future." ...

In addition to Public Knowledge and Free Press, other groups signing the petition include the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, EDUCAUSE, Media Access Project, New America Foundation and U.S. PIRG. ...

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