InfoWorld

Michael Calabrese in InfoWorld | "$4.7 billion bid in 17th round of the 700MHz auctions"

Communications — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:12:00 -0500

New America in the News:

$4.7 billion in the 17th round of the 700MHz auctions (InfoWorld)

The FCC may have to re-auction the spectrum without the reserve price and perhaps without public safety obligations, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Spectrum Policy Program at think tank the New America Foundation.

Michael Calabrese in InfoWorld | 'Trust But Verify'

Communications — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:11:00 -0500

New America in the News:

'Trust but verify' open mobile network pledges (InfoWorld)

...Carriers including AT&T and Verizon Wireless have promised to open up their networks, but the FCC will need to watch the prices that carriers charge customers who bring their own devices to the networks, said the FCC's Michael Copps, speaking Tuesday at a New America Foundation forum. The FCC will also need to monitor the complexity of certification for new devices and applications, he said. ...

Right now, "you don't get a discount for bringing your own phone," said Frieden, author of a New America Foundation paper calling on the FCC to regulate open network access. more

InfoWorld Quotes Sascha Meinrath on M2Z and the White Spaces Debate

Communications — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 11:34:00 -0400

New America in the News:

M2Z Networks may sue the U.S. Federal Communications Commission after the agency turned down its request for radio frequencies for a national broadband wireless network.

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...M2Z wants to deliver a free service, supported partly by locally targeted search advertising, at 384Kbps downstream and 128Kbps upstream. People would only have to give a valid e-mail address or phone number to use it. Like broadcast TV, the free service would be "family friendly," meaning it would filter out content that wasn't appropriate for children. A paid service on the same network would offer 3Mbps throughput and access to anything on the Internet.

[M2Z's CEO John Muleta] knows who he's up against. He was chief of the FCC's wireless bureau from 2003 to 2005. M2Z, founded in 2005 and based in Menlo Park, Calif., is backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firms.

One wireless analyst said the free service wouldn't be fast enough for most consumers. He also questioned its "family friendly" content restrictions.

"At that point, you're not really giving Internet service," said Sascha Meinrath, research director for the Wireless Future program at the public policy group New America Foundation.

But even if its service never gets turned on, M2Z has done its part to foster broadband competition, Meinrath said.

"M2Z has pretty single-handedly shifted the debate," Meinrath said. Its plan to pay for spectrum through royalties rather than up front, as well as to make more efficient use of spectrum and offer a free service, are likely to show up in future spectrum allocation plans, he said. More efficient wireless networks should mean more bandwidth at lower cost -- a better deal for consumers, Meinrath said...

For the complete article, please visit InfoWorld's web site.

InfoWorld Highlights New America Spectrum Event

Communications — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 07:42:00 -0400

New America in the News:

The U.S. government has given away between $140 billion and $480 billion worth of radio spectrum to wireless providers and broadcasters since 1993, according to a study released Tuesday.

The New America Foundation, a think tank calling for new ways to manage U.S. spectrum, said most of the giveaway has come not through underperforming auctions but through "below the radar" lobbying tactics by spectrum holders. Much of the spectrum giveaway comes through strategies like case-by-case waivers for flexible spectrum use granted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), poorly defined spectrum boundaries, and spectrum holders polluting neighboring spectrum, said J.H. Snider, author of the study.

In many cases, the FCC has automatically renewed spectrum licenses even through spectrum law allows for licensing for "limited periods of time," he added.

The U.S. government raised about $40 billion in more than 80 spectrum auctions since 1993, Snider said at a forum in Washington, D.C. But wireless providers and broadcasters, in financial reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, have given that spectrum a value of about $180 billion, he said.

The spectrum is likely worth much more than those estimates, he added. Using past auction figures, the value of the spectrum could be more than $520 billion, he said...

For the complete article, please visit the InfoWorld website.

To learn more about this New America event and to read the report, please click here.

Infoworld Highlights New America's Spectrum Auction Event

Communications — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:47:00 -0400

New America in the News:

New broadband providers should be given a better chance of winning pieces of valuable wireless spectrum to be auctioned by early next year, several groups said Friday.

The groups, including Google, startup Frontline Wireless, and consumer advocate Public Knowledge, called on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to change the way it auctions spectrum when it sells off 60Mhz of spectrum to be freed up when U.S. television stations move to all-digital broadcasts.

The auction of the coveted 700MHz band of spectrum -- which allows broadband-speed wireless signals to travel farther and penetrate buildings better than some other bands -- presents the best hope U.S. consumers have of a third major broadband service to challenge cable and DSL carriers, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation, a think tank that hosted Friday's spectrum forum.

"If we do nothing -- if we take the [auction] rules we've used for the last 10 years, the same incumbents are going to win," added Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, an open media advocacy group. "There is no competition fairy. There is no magic that's going to happen that if we just deregulate enough, somehow a new competitor is going to emerge..."

For the complete article, please visit the Infoworld website.

Michael Calabrese in InfoWorld on Spectrum Auction

Communications — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:09:00 -0400

New America in the News:

A coalition of consumer groups wants open access for a portion of valuable wireless spectrum to be auctioned by the FCC in early 2008.

The six groups, calling themselves the Save Our Spectrum Coalition, filed comments with the FCC Thursday, suggesting competitors to the large DSL and cable modem service providers could use the open access to provide a broadband alternative. Sometime next year, the FCC is due to auction 60MHz of spectrum in the upper 700MHz band, which is being abandoned by U.S. television broadcasters as they move from analog to digital broadcasts...

The groups want the FCC to impose conditions on the winners of the spectrum auction. They want half of the 60MHz to be auctioned to allow open access to competitors of the large broadband providers, and they asked the FCC to require the spectrum be available at wholesale rates...

Each tower transmitting in the upper 700MHz spectrum band can cover four times the large geographic area as towers in higher bands, and the signals go through obstacles like trees and buildings better than traditional Wi-Fi, said Michael Calabrese, director of the wireless future program at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

"This is the last large auction of prime spectrum in the foreseeable future," Calabrese said during a Save Our Spectrum Coalition news conference...

For the complete article, please visit the InfoWorld website.