Broadband & Community Broadband

...Arguments that smart radios cannot use white space without causing TV interference are off the mark, said Michael Calabrese, vice president of the New America Foundation. The U.S. military uses this technology, he said.

One segment of radio spectrum controlled by the Department of Defense for radar transmissions is open to sharing with unlicensed devices in much the same way proposed for TV white space, Calabrese said. This month, the UK approved a digital TV white-space sharing plan similar to… more

When discussing the state of municipal Wi-Fi in Philadelphia, the conversation is almost always about whether or not Earthlink is going to hold up its end of the deal and build out the system. (That seems unlikely in the face of their recent Philly no-show.) However, The Ethos Group has taken a broader view of Philadelphia’s municipal wireless system. They’ve published a 64-page report (pdf) which reviews the entire history of the system.

The Ethos Group's report, "The Philadelphia Story: Learning from a Municipal Wireless Pioneer," has been posted on the New America Foundation's web site. The report is stirring debate and will continue to as the discussion of life-after-EarthLink moves forward. ...

For the complete story, please click here. The report was released at an event organized by the New America Foundation in Philadelphia on December 11.

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… more

A coalition of technology vendors, consumer groups and think tanks has banded together to persuade the Federal Communications Commission to approve wireless devices that would operate in currently unused television spectrum.

The Wireless Innovation Alliance, which launched a Web site on Wednesday, is an expansion of the vendor-centric White Spaces Coalition, a group that has been pushing for the use of so-called white-space spectrum for wireless broadband services.

The vendor coalition includes companies such as Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., Intel Corp., Dell… more

House lawmakers in both parties are stepping up pressure on the FCC to permit technology companies such as Dell, Google, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft to harness vacant broadcast spectrum in order to expand wireless, high-speed Internet access.

In a Tuesday letter to the agency, Reps. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Nathan Deal, R-Ga.; Jay Inslee; D-Wash., Mike Rogers, R-Mich.; and Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., urged the FCC to resolve any remaining technical issues and release final rules in a few months. All… more

By almost all reports, and there were a number of them yesterday, the attempt of EarthLink, Inc. to blanket Philadelphia with affordable wireless internet service is in trouble.

City Council is openly worried the city may be forced to take over and run the new citywide wireless network - perhaps as an exclusive provider for city employees without any public access.

The reports confirmed the project is running 40 percent over budget and has missed its target date for the system… more

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… more

On Tuesday, December 11th, New America Foundation, The Ethos Group, and the Center for International Media Action will release an in-depth analysis and report on Philadelphia’s efforts to build a municipal wireless network. Philadelphia’s initiative to promote wireless technology and address the problem of the digital divide has influenced municipal wireless projects nationwide and helped shape the national discussion over municipal broadband.

The New America Foundation and the Media Mobilizing Project will host a panel of municipal broadband experts to discuss… more

Spectrum sensing, of the kind that's required to allow wireless devices to use TV white spaces to access the Internet without causing harmful interference, is a “proven and well-understood technology,” the New America Foundation said in a white paper released Monday. The group said the goal of the paper is to counter “the torrent of misinformation” in arguments made by broadcasters and others opposed to opening the spectrum for unlicensed use by portable devices. Sources said Monday the paper… more