FCC chairman backs use of 'white space' spectrum

[greggh]

This is very promising news.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-100673 ... 47-1_3-0-5

Companies lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to access unused spectrum known as "white spaces" won a big victory on Wednesday when Chairman Kevin Martin threw his weight behind the proposal citing findings in an FCC report that was also issued Wednesday.
FCC

Martin held a press conference with reporters early in the day in which he pledged his support for the use of the white space spectrum and announced that the issue would be up for vote at the FCC's next open meeting on November 4. Martin has long been in favor of opening up additional spectrum that can be used to offer wireless broadband services.

The FCC finished testing several proof of concept devices in real world tests this summer to see if companies can develop products that use buffer spectrum between licensed broadcast channels. This spectrum known has "white space" sits between broadcast TV channels in the 150 MHz to 700 MHs spectrum bands.

White Spaces is like WiFi on steroids. If this spectrum is made available for free unlicensed use we will really be a huge step closer to having all the people in the world controlling and providing internet access to ourselves. It may be the real final step towards a truly free, as in freedom, networked world.

[Gomer_X]

White Spaces is like WiFi on steroids. If this spectrum is made available for free unlicensed use we will really be a huge step closer to having all the people in the world controlling and providing internet access to ourselves. It may be the real final step towards a truly free, as in freedom, networked world.

They're just deregulating broadcast frequencies that are no longer used for over the air broadcast. It's happened before.

What will probably happen is they'll auction the band to the highest bidder. I think Google won last time, but I can't remember.

They're not going to deregulate it for private use because licensing is worth (a lot of) money and they want to control who uses the spectrum. Even if they did deregulate it completely there would still be limits on the power you could transmit over those frequencies. There would also need to be some kind of standard or everyone would be broadcasting random data and there'd be nothing but interference.

I'm not saying they can't use it for wireless broadband, but I think the last thing they'll do is create a free, open band for everyone to use as they see fit.

[greggh]

White Spaces is like WiFi on steroids. If this spectrum is made available for free unlicensed use we will really be a huge step closer to having all the people in the world controlling and providing internet access to ourselves. It may be the real final step towards a truly free, as in freedom, networked world.

They're just deregulating broadcast frequencies that are no longer used for over the air broadcast. It's happened before.

What will probably happen is they'll auction the band to the highest bidder. I think Google won last time, but I can't remember.

They're not going to deregulate it for private use because licensing is worth (a lot of) money and they want to control who uses the spectrum. Even if they did deregulate it completely there would still be limits on the power you could transmit over those frequencies. There would also need to be some kind of standard or everyone would be broadcasting random data and there'd be nothing but interference.

I'm not saying they can't use it for wireless broadband, but I think the last thing they'll do is create a free, open band for everyone to use as they see fit.

The plan that is being considered is to make this spectrum available for free UNLICENSED use designated for internet wireless devices such as wireless routers, the same as the junky 2.4 GHz band which is currently freely available for unlicensed use for WiFi. This will mean we will have wireless routers that will be much, much better in their wireless reach than current WiFi routers. The penetration characteristics are also tremendously better for the white space spectrum (150 MHz to 700 MHz) than WiFi. WiFi can only penetrate 2 walls before the signal stops. White Space spectrum can go through many walls.

I'm not saying that there is a plan for any one organization to use this to provide broadband access to everyone. I am saying that with this much better spectrum available it becomes much easier for us to use this as a tool to provide access to ourselves, in a community fashion.

[greggh]

FCC reluctantly considers delaying white space vote

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10070373-94.html

The Federal Communications Commission is considering delaying its November 4 vote on using unlicensed white space spectrum after broadcasters filed an emergency petition, according to Web site Ars Technica.

The article quotes FCC spokesman Rob Kenny as saying the agency is reviewing the broadcasters' request. But the article also made it sound like the FCC wasn't crazy about the idea of delaying the vote. Kenny notes in his comments that the white space proceeding has been open for several years and there have already been several rounds of testing, which were open to the public for comment.

Of course, it should come as little surprise that the broadcasters are unhappy with the FCC's support for white spaces. They have been fighting the proceeding tooth and nail from the beginning. While broadcasters say they oppose the use of white spaces because of interference issues, I wonder if they are also afraid that opening up this spectrum might hurt their business models years into the future.

The companies pushing hardest for white spaces are companies like Microsoft and Google. Today these companies don't compete directly with broadcasters. But as more video is distributed via the Internet, there's a chance that they could become competitors in the future. Google already competes in a minor way with its YouTube site. The white space spectrum, which penetrates easily through walls and provides high capacity, could be used to extend broadband services wirelessly.

Perhaps a bigger threat to broadcasters are the companies that haven't been created yet. Opening up the white space spectrum for free use could help spur the creation of new companies that could eventually compete with them. In many ways this is exactly what Chairman Martin hopes will happen.

We will see if the corporatacracy can push our government into selling us out once again.

[Gomer_X]

The plan that is being considered is to make this spectrum available for free UNLICENSED use designated for internet wireless devices such as wireless routers, the same as the junky 2.4 GHz band which is currently freely available for unlicensed use for WiFi. This will mean we will have wireless routers that will be much, much better in their wireless reach than current WiFi routers.

I don't think this is true. The fact that the spectrum will be unlicensed doesn't mean it will be unregulated.

Devices using this spectrum will have to have power limitations and meet specifications. The reason current WiFi has a limited range is because of power limitations that are required by the FCC. It has nothing to do with licensing or what frequency it's on.

At least that's what I understand from the various stories I've heard on this.

[greggh]

The plan that is being considered is to make this spectrum available for free UNLICENSED use designated for internet wireless devices such as wireless routers, the same as the junky 2.4 GHz band which is currently freely available for unlicensed use for WiFi. This will mean we will have wireless routers that will be much, much better in their wireless reach than current WiFi routers.

I don't think this is true. The fact that the spectrum will be unlicensed doesn't mean it will be unregulated.

Devices using this spectrum will have to have power limitations and meet specifications. The reason current WiFi has a limited range is because of power limitations that are required by the FCC. It has nothing to do with licensing or what frequency it's on.

At least that's what I understand from the various stories I've heard on this.

I think you are confused about what licensed/unlicensed and regulated/unregulated means in relation to use of spectrum. They are not mutually exclusive. For instance WiFi spectrum (2.4 GHz) is unlicensed, but it is regulated in how much power (watts) the broadcast signal can be in the devices, to prevent interference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wifi

Wi-Fi uses both single carrier direct-sequence spread spectrum radio technology (part of the larger family of spread spectrum systems) and multi-carrier OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) radio technology. The regulations for unlicensed spread spectrum enabled the development of Wi-Fi, its onetime competitor HomeRF, Bluetooth, and many other products such as some types of cordless telephones.

Unlicensed spread spectrum was first made available in the US by the Federal Communications Commission in 1985 and these FCC regulations were later copied with some changes in many other countries enabling use of this technology in all major countries.[18] The FCC action was proposed by Michael Marcus of the FCC staff in 1980 and the subsequent regulatory action took 5 more years. It was part of a broader proposal to allow civil use of spread spectrum technology and was opposed at the time by main stream equipment manufacturers and many radio system operators.

The same will be true, with the proposed "white spaces". Even with the regulation of transmit power the future white spaces devices will have a much greater range than current WiFi routers, and much, much better wall penetration characteristics.

[Gomer_X]

I think you are confused about what licensed/unlicensed and regulated/unregulated means in relation to use of spectrum. They are not mutually exclusive. For instance WiFi spectrum (2.4 GHz) is unlicensed, but it is regulated in how much power (watts) the broadcast signal can be in the devices, to prevent interference.

That's pretty much exactly my point. They're working on freeing the spectrum for unlicensed use, but not unregulated use. I've said that several times.

Licensing and regulation are not mutually exclusive, but in this case they're only discussing licensing. The FCC won't leave any spectrum completely unregulated. That's their job.

We may well end up with a band that can be used by anybody that penetrates better and has looser power requirements, allowing widespread wireless broadband to exist. That still doesn't mean we'll have this big space where you can legally do anything you want.

[greggh]

I think you are confused about what licensed/unlicensed and regulated/unregulated means in relation to use of spectrum. They are not mutually exclusive. For instance WiFi spectrum (2.4 GHz) is unlicensed, but it is regulated in how much power (watts) the broadcast signal can be in the devices, to prevent interference.

That's pretty much exactly my point. They're working on freeing the spectrum for unlicensed use, but not unregulated use. I've said that several times.

It didn't read to me like that's what you were saying before.

They're just deregulating broadcast frequencies that are no longer used for over the air broadcast. It's happened before.

What will probably happen is they'll auction the band to the highest bidder. I think Google won last time, but I can't remember.

They're not going to deregulate it for private use because licensing is worth (a lot of) money and they want to control who uses the spectrum.

For some reason you keep talking about it being regulated. It's a strawman argument that I'm not really sure why you want to keep making. I never said that there would not be regulations such as power limits and others that ensures that interference does not occur. I was pointing out that this spectrum may become available for free UNLICENSED use. That means that WHO uses the spectrum WON'T be controlled. And even WHAT the spectrum is used for WON'T BE CONTROLLED, and the type of devices using this spectrum WON'T BE CONTROLLED, aside from conforming to the regulated power output and not causing interference. When the government made the 2.4 GHz band available for UNLICENSED use in 1985 some of the first uses that people came up with to use this spectrum for were garage door openers and cordless phones. Who could have foresaw that one day this spectrum would be used worldwide for wireless computer communications? The same will be true for the white spaces. We don't even know yet all the uses that will be invented to use this spectrum.

[Gomer_X]

The latest:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10077742-94.html

Musicians (including Dolly Parton) are banding together to ask the FCC to postpone this vote. Apparentlty the frequency band in question is used for wireless microphones, which are extremely low power. Any higher power device (WiFi definitely falls in this category) would cause interferance, therefore there is some opposition to opening up this space.

I guess we'll see what happens.