[South Florida DX Association] Cell Phone Mania Forces Scramble for Airwaves

[Norman Alexander]

Note the comments regarding ham bands being possible targets - they will be, as they have been in the past.  Support the ARRL spectrum fund - they are our only organized opposition to  those seeking our bands.

article is long, but worth reading as it outlines some FCC thinking as well as commercial interests.

 
Norm W4QN



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Subject: Cell Phone Mania Forces Scramble for Airwaves


http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2009/12/28/cell-phone-mania-forces-scramble-airwaves/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+foxnews%252Fscitech+%2528FOXNews.com+-+SciTech%2529 
 
[They seem to be going after TV and Sat-phones first. How long before they come after the Amateur Radio spectrum? 
Pass this to your Ham Radio friends. Read the comments on the FoxNews web site too. –Uncle Dave, N4QPM]
 
 - December 28, 2009
Cell Phone Mania Forces Scramble for 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.