[ETS/PARC List] Cell phone mania forces scramble for more airwaves

[Drew Moore]

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Cell phone mania forces scramble for more airwaves


WASHINGTON - Wireless devices such as Apple's iPhone are transforming  
the way we go online, making it possible to look up driving  
directions, find the nearest coffee shop and update Facebook on the  
go. All this has a price - in airwaves.

As mobile phones become more sophisticated, they transmit and receive  
more data over the airwaves. But the spectrum of wireless frequencies  
is finite - and devices like the iPhone are allowed to use only so  
much of it. TV and radio broadcasts, Wi-Fi networks and other  
communications services also use the airwaves. Each transmits on  
certain frequencies to avoid interference with others.

Now wireless phone companies fear they're in danger of running out of  
room, leaving congested networks that frustrate users and slow  
innovation. So the wireless companies want the government to give them  
bigger slices of airwaves - even if other users have to give up rights  
to theirs.

"Spectrum is the equivalent of our highways," says Christopher Guttman- 
McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless  
Association, an industry trade group. "That's how we move our traffic.  
And the volume of that traffic is increasing so dramatically that we  
need more lanes. We need more highways."

That won't happen without a fight. Wireless companies are eyeing some  
frequencies used by TV broadcasters, satellite-communications  
companies and federal agencies such as the Pentagon. Already, some of  
those groups are pushing back.

That means tough choices are ahead. But one way or another, Washington  
will keep up with the exploding growth of the wireless market, insists  
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va. He is sponsoring a bill that would mandate a  
government inventory of the airwaves to identify unused or underused  
bands that could be reallocated.

"It's not a question of whether we can find more spectrum," says  
Boucher, chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on  
Communications, Technology and the Internet. "We have to find more  
spectrum."

CTIA, the industry group, is asking the government to make an  
additional 800 megahertz of the airwaves available for wireless  
companies to license over the next six years. That would be a huge  
expansion from the industry's current slice of roughly 500 megahertz.  
The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to make more  
frequencies available for commercial use, but has just 50 megahertz in  
the pipeline.

Two trends are driving the demand.

First, advanced new wireless applications - such as mobile video and  
online games - devour far more bandwidth than voice calls or basic  
text messages, says Neville Ray, senior vice president for engineering  
operations for T-Mobile USA Inc.

Second, consumers are flocking to wireless Internet connections, in  
some cases dropping landline accounts altogether. ABI Research  
projects U.S. mobile broadband subscriptions will climb to 150 million  
by 2014, up from 48 million this year and 5 million in 2007.

The predicament, says Jamie Hedlund, vice president of regulatory  
affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, is that many users  
"assume the wireless experience should be the same as the wired  
experience, but the capacity is just not there for that."

The industry's concerns are finding a sympathetic ear in Washington.

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, says finding more room for  
the wireless industry will be an important part of his agency's  
broadband plan. That plan, mandated by the 2009 stimulus bill, is due  
in February and will propose using wireless systems to bring high- 
speed Internet connections to corners of the country that are too  
remote for landline networks.

"If we are going to have a world-leading broadband infrastructure for  
the nation, wireless is an indispensable ingredient," says Genachowski  
aide Colin Crowell.

Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and  
Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department that  
manages the federal government's use of the airwaves, says the agency  
is also hunting for more frequencies the wireless industry can use.

Some of the crunch can be addressed with technologies that make more  
efficient use of airwaves and new equipment that lets users share  
bands. The FCC also wants to promote greater use of frequencies that  
aren't licensed to anyone, such as the "white spaces" between the  
bands used by TV channels.

But such solutions alone won't solve the crisis, the wireless industry  
warns.

The FCC's attention for now is on TV broadcasters, which hold nearly  
300 megahertz of airwaves that are mainly used to serve just 10  
percent of American homes - those that still rely solely on over-the- 
air TV signals.

The FCC is exploring multiple options, most of which would leave  
broadcasters with enough capacity to deliver a high-definition signal  
over the air. One possibility, which might require congressional  
approval, is a voluntary program that would let broadcasters sell  
excess bandwidth through an auction, to either the government or  
directly to wireless companies. Although the FCC awarded spectrum  
licenses to broadcasters for free many years ago, those licenses are  
worth millions today.

"Fewer people are getting over-the-air TV and at the same time, more  
and more people are using mobile broadband," says Blair Levin, the  
official overseeing the FCC broadband plan. "So it only makes  
sense ... to get that asset into the hands of whomever can realize its  
greatest value."

The idea faces opposition from the powerful broadcast lobby. Dennis  
Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of  
Broadcasters, says the proposal would stunt the industry's plans to  
make innovative use of the airwaves that became free when it turned  
off analog broadcasts and went entirely digital in June. Broadcasters  
have already returned more than 100 megahertz of those airwaves to the  
government and plan to use the rest to transmit high-definition  
signals, "multicast" multiple channels and deliver mobile TV to  
phones, laptops and cars.

"The FCC proposal would kill many of our future business plans in the  
cradle," Wharton says.

Wireless carriers are also setting their sights on frequencies held by  
companies that deliver voice and data services through satellites.

Hedlund, of the Consumer Electronics Association, notes that some of  
these companies have a lot of bandwidth but not a lot of customers.  
TerreStar Corp., for one, launched its satellite in July and is just  
building a subscriber base. And ICO Global Communications, which is  
running tests on a satellite launched last year, has not announced  
when it will begin commercial service.

But TerreStar General Counsel Doug Brandon believes the company has a  
strong argument for keeping its airwaves: Satellites can provide a  
critical lifeline in emergencies when other communications links go  
down and in rural areas where other carriers don't offer service.

If anything, added ICO Vice President Christopher Doherty, satellite  
phone companies are ideal partners for cell phone companies that want  
to expand coverage. TerreStar, for one, has a deal for AT&T Inc. to  
resell the satellite service.

More potential sources of frequencies are federal agencies that handle  
everything from emergency communications to surveillance operations.  
The Defense Department, for instance, needs the airwaves for such  
critical equipment as radars, precision-guided weapons and drone planes.

The Pentagon has vacated some frequencies and is developing technology  
that can make more efficient use of airwaves. It also says it is  
committed to finding compromises that work for the government and  
commercial sector, so long as those don't jeopardize military  
capabilities.

Karl Nebbia, head of the NTIA's Office of Spectrum Management, points  
out that federal agencies may be open to moving to different bands  
because the government is "a huge user of commercial broadband  
services." But one challenge will be to ensure federal users get the  
resources to relocate - including new equipment, potentially paid for  
with spectrum auction proceeds.

For now, one thing everyone agrees is that there are no easy pickings  
in the airwaves.

"There is no open space anywhere," says Kathleen Ham, vice president  
of regulatory affairs for T-Mobile.


By JOELLE TESSLER AP Technology Writer


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