Open Spectrum

As stated in the initial Comments filed by the Public Interest Organizations in this proceeding, Wall Street analysts estimate the incremental value of the cost-free AWS-4 license grant proposed in the NPRM to be on the order of $4 to $6 billion. Despite the enormous market value of this Federal grant, the Commission proposes no set of conditions comparable to those associated with the LightSquared authorizations.

Freedom of Expression: Penalties for Controversial Content

In an effort to curb anti-government speech, China’s top microblogging site, Sina Weibo, implemented a points-based system that penalizes users for posting certain types of content. The site, which boasts over 300 million users, was in the news last month for censoring content on human rights activist Chen Guangcheng and has a record of complying with the Chinese government’s censorship demands.

The undersigned Public Interest Organizations (New America Foundation, Public Knowledge and Consumers Union) welcome the Commission’s effort to reallocate fallow Mobile Satellite Spectrum for more fully flexible licensing in a manner that holds the potential to promote wireless industry competition, innovation and consumer welfare.

Michael Calabrese, the Director of the Wireless Future Project at the Open Technology Institute, delivered this "Spectrum 101" presentation as part of a panel at Spectrum for Democracy: Securing the Gains from the Arab Spring on May 3, 2012. The presentation explains some of the technical basics of spectrum, as well as issues of regulation, scarcity, interference, and license-exempt use.

An academic workshop at New America Foundation, April 11, 2012

As government services, political discourse and commerce expand online, policymakers and public interest organizations are promoting broadband “adoption” among people who are not currently using the Internet, or using it marginally. Yet there is little discussion of what “adoption” means or how it can be measured.

In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission approved an application by LightSquared to create a wholesale mobile broadband network by combining land-based and mobile satellite services. Subsequently, the commercial GPS industry opposed the network, arguing it would cause harmful interference to GPS devices. In response to a request for comments about the report of the Technical Working Group ordered by the FCC to study the interference issues, the New America Foundation, Free Press, Public Knowledge, and Media Access Project (the Public Interest Organizations) urge the FCC to actively intervene to broker, or impose if necessary, a plan that will not leave the L Band spectrum that LightSquared controls fallow, that will permit LightSquared to deploy its promised wholesale-only mobile broadband network on at least part of its spectrum, and that will safeguard essential GPS services.

Public Knowledge and the New America Foundation (“PK and NAF”) support both consumer choice and the responsible use of mobile wireless signal boosters. PK and NAF agree with the Commission that if properly designed and certified, mobile signal boosters have the potential to greatly benefit the public while automatically providing sufficient protection against harmful interference. PK and NAF agree with the Commission’s proposal that mobile signal boosters should be classified as Section 307(e) devices and authorized without an individual license for use on any or all networks.

When the Open Technology Initiative presented at the Allied Media Conference in June, many of the participants documented it with posts to Twitter and Flickr. We used Storify, an online tool for compiling social media, to arrange those pics and tweets into a narrative of our workshop and a tour of local wireless networks.

Today,Michael Calabrese, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Wireless Future Project at New America's Open Technology Initiative, testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing discussed proposed legislation concerning rules for "incentive auctions" of TV band spectrum and public safety issues.