MANHASSET, N.Y. — In separate actions Thursday (Oct. 16), the Federal Communications Commission continued to follow through on its ongoing commitment to remove regulatory barriers to the deployment of advanced wireless broadband services.
In the first report and order, the agency opened up 90 MHz of spectrum for 3G and advanced broadband wireless services in the 1700- and 2100-MHz bands. It second action was to open up 12.9 GHz of spectrum divided between the 70-, 80-, and 90-GHz bands.
The former is intended to enable a variety of advanced 3G wireless services, including voice, data and broadband for both fixed and mobile networks. It specifically relates to the 1710-1755 and 2110-2155-MHz contiguous portions of the spectrum. The latter is designed to spark development of "millimeter wave" high-speed, point-to-point wireless local area networks and broadband Internet access and includes spectrum between 71 and 76 GHz, 81 and 86 GHz and 92 and 95 GHz.
Reactions to the FCC decision varied. Chris Pearson, executive vice president for 3G Americas, an industry group representing North American carriers, called it a "positive development."
Pearson added, "Any time spectrum is released, it's welcome — it's a limited resource." By Pearson's estimate, the move increases the available spectrum in North America by roughly 48 percent: from 170 MHz (120 MHz for PCS and 50 MHz for cellular) divided between the 850- and 1900-MHz bands to a total of 280 MHz.
Craig Mathias, principal analyst at Farpoint Group, endorsed the release of new spectrum but doubted whether carriers would be able to pay for licenses or that they'd be able to do much with the spectrum once they got it. "While the carriers are doing well at the moment, their capital expenditure is still way down, which will affect their ability to purchase licenses and deploy basestations — though they're still desperate for more spectrum."
Mathias was even less enthusiastic about the millimeter-wave licenses. "While more spectrum is always good, and we're not going to be handing it back, we're not exactly suffering from a shortage of spectrum at those frequencies," he said. The biggest question, he added, is the industry's readiness to take advantage of the spectrum. "Development at 90 GHz is expensive and most of it is taking place in the military," he said. "The biggest application I can see for [the spectrum] is in radar and positioning."
The new rules for 3G spectrum include provisions for application procedures, licensing, technical operations and competitive bidding. This spectrum will be licensed by geographic areas under the FCC's flexible, market-oriented Part 27 rules, and will be assigned through auctions. To accommodate the needs of different providers, including large carriers as well as small and rural providers, the spectrum plan includes a mixture of license sizes and geographic areas as laid out in the FCC maps.
Caveats for licensees include initial 15-year terms with 10-year renewal options — with a requirement to show substantial service by the end of the license term. No construction requirements were included. Licensees will also be able to aggregate spectrum, as well as partition and disaggregate their licenses. The auction will take place at a date to be determined, the agency said.
While FCC chairman Michael Powell lauded the decision as a means of bringing "valuable new services to consumers, stimulate economic activity, improve national productivity, increase investment, create jobs and advance many other worthy objectives," others had reservations. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps expressed concern over the lack of consolidation protections that would limit spectrum aggregation. "Under the rules we adopt today, one company could apparently end up controlling the entire AWS [advanced wireless services] band in a city or a geographic region, leaving no AWS spectrum for competitors. That's a result I do not like."
Separately, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein warned that large license areas could raise auction prices so high that many companies seeking to serve smaller areas won't be able to afford to bid. "However, I believe we should find a balance in developing a band plan, and I am pleased to note that a diverse group of commenters in this proceeding supported different sizes of license areas for different blocks of the spectrum. I believe we got the balance right here."
Regarding spectrum at 70 GHz and higher, the FCC said it would license the bands after recognizing that technological advances could help utilize the bands at relatively low cost. In developing rules, it factored for narrow-beam signal propagation characteristics and adopted a nonexclusive licensing approach.
FCC officials said the approach obviates the need for traditional frequency coordination between users. Instead, each path will be registered in a database, and would be entitled to interference protection based on the date of registration.
The theory is that the nonexclusive licensing approach will stimulate investment and spur research and development in new "wireless optics" technologies and services. The FCC also said this approach will provide an effective means of achieving greater spectrum efficiency by allowing a maximum number of commercial and government users to share the bands while evolving their systems to meet future needs and requirements.
The number of nonexclusive, national licenses authorizing non-government entities to use the entire 12.9 GHz of spectrum in the three bands will be unlimited.
"These are the highest bands we have ever licensed," said Powell. "They join other broadband Internet platforms, both wireless — licensed, unlicensed and satellite — and wired — from powerline to DSL to cable to fiber-to-the- home — in the increasingly competitive broadband Internet race."
