DTV Transition & Media Reform

Switch Digital TV Will Benefit You Plenty, FCC Says | Los Angeles Times

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 16:43:00 -0400

It takes fewer airwaves to transmit a digital signal than it does an analog one, which means companies can use the reclaimed airwaves to enhance the way we communicate, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New ...

Michael Calabrese in Communications Daily | 'DTV Signals'

Cecille Isidro — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:34:00 -0400

The coalition "is very definitely still interested in avoiding any unjustified cannibalization of TV white space by broadcast licensees unless they can demonstrate they need to do this to continue coverage to households within their" market who could lose access to DTV signals after the analog cutoff, New America Foundation Vice President Michael Calabrese told us. "We reiterated those concerns to commissioners" Friday. LINK (subscription required)

The Lobby that Cried Wolf

Wireless Future — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:50:00 -0400

In an October 2007 letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), executives from the four largest TV networks told the Commission that proposals to allow low-power Wi-Fi type devices to operate on vacant TV channels, “could cause permanent damage to over-the-air digital television reception." Such a dire warning would ring alarm bells for policymakers, if not for the fact that similar nightmare scenarios have been predicted before.

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

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,… more

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

...[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 in Broadcasting & Cable | 'Google's Page Fights for White Spaces'

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

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

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

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

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. . .

Sascha Meinrath in the New York Times politics blog | "Wanted: A More Digital Congress"

Communications — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:12:00 -0500

Wanted: A More Digital Congress (New York Times)

. . . Another way to share content online with voters, said Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation, is including access to a program like Google Documents, which allows multiple users to edit the same document. The idea is that if congressmen put a preliminary draft of a bill in an open source program on their sites, then specialists out in their home districts could amend the language or add information that hadn’t been addressed for the legislator to consider.

“We should be tapping into that expertise,” Mr. Meinrath said. “Peer production is a massive untapped resource.” . . .

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

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

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. . .

Broadcast to Broadband

Ron Tang — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Although much public attention has focused on the US digital TV transition -- and the resulting reallocation of analog TV channels by auction to wireless carriers -- the US Federal Communications Commission will decide how to reallocate an even larger swath of prime TV band spectrum this year: the unused “white space” between occupied DTV channels. This reallocation of unused spectrum from broadcasting to broadband permits unlicensed access for both fixed and mobile applications.

In 2002, the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force recommended that spectrum efficiency and innovation could be enhanced by reallocating unused and underutilized spectrum for both flexible-use licenses (by auction) and opportunistic use by smart-radio devices capable of sharing bands on an unlicensed basis.

Shortly after this report, the FCC surprised almost everyone by issuing a Notice of Inquiry asking for comment on the feasibility of reallocating the TV white space for advanced wireless services. In May 2004, under then-chairman Michael Powell, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM), tentatively concluding that opening at least some of the vacant channels for unlicensed access would be feasible and beneficial.

Although this policy is strongly supported by high-tech companies and consumer advocates, it’s just as strongly opposed by broadcast licensees and other incumbent users of the TV band.

The opposition is primarily led by the band’s incumbent licensees -- the US National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and wireless microphone makers and users (such as the sports leagues and entertainment venues that intermittently use white spaces). The NAB refers to white spaces as “interference zones,” and broadcasters agree because they feel mobile broadband devices, even operating at low power, would inevitably interfere with DTV reception and microphone systems. The NAB and its engineering affiliate, the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV), have filed studies showing that Wi-Fi-type devices could cause both co-channel interference (if they can’t reliably detect a DTV transmission in a given location) and adjacent-channel interference (the unlicensed device’s transmission could leak and disrupt DTV reception).

In contrast, high-tech firms and consumer groups have argued that a variety of proven technologies are capable of avoiding interference with DTV reception. Intel, Dell, Microsoft, Google, and other members of the high-tech White Spaces Coalition argue in their filings that because proven technologies exist for detecting and avoiding DTV signals, barring mobile devices represents an enormous loss for consumers and potential broadband innovation.

For its part, the FCC has consistently assumed that several technologies are capable of ensuring that white-space devices can identify vacant channels in a local market and operate without interfering with DTV reception on neighboring channels (or in neighboring media markets). In its 2004 NPRM, the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) described three different approaches that white space devices could use to avoid such interference:

Geolocation / database. In this scheme, the unlicensed device (such as a wireless ISP access point) would use a GPS receiver to cross-check its own location against an online database of licensed TV transmitter locations.
Beacon permission. An alternative approach, aimed at allowing networks of mobile devices, would require that an unlicensed device not transmit unless it receives a “green light” signal indicating that the specific channel is free to use in that locality.
“Listen-before-talk” sensing. Another approach strongly favored by the high-tech company coalition would require that each individual device scan and identify unused TV channels before transmitting (with the accuracy enhanced by sharing sensing data with other devices in range)...

For the full text of Calabrese's article, please see the PDF attached below.