Open Spectrum: Recent and Upcoming Events

From September 22 to 24, the New America Foundations Open Technology Initiative hosted Beyond Broadband Access: Data Based Information Policy for a New Administration. An experts workshop, Beyond Broadband Access created an opportunity for small group of highly skilled experts from around the world to seek breakthrough insights which can be applied to current policy challenges.

As the FCC begins its year-long process to recommend a National Broadband Plan, one starting point is to unlock publicly-owned assets that can facilitate ubiquitous, affordable broadband access. Wireless spectrum remains the most cost-effective and rapid means to deliver broadband access to rural and unserved urban residents. But as mobile broadband use continues to increase exponentially, demand for spectrum will rapidly outpace availability under current spectrum management policies.

Both President-Elect Barack Obama and Congressional leaders have discussed including government support to promote high-speed broadband access as part of the upcoming economic stimulus package. This has prompted a flood of proposals and ideas from advocates of all sides of the broadband debate. Economic stimulus should be timely, temporary and targeted. But who should this stimulus target and how can we spur investments that will create both short-term economic growth and long-term economic prosperity in the 21st century?

In an unprecedented display of consensus, a broad and diverse array of groups concerned about America's broadband future released a Call to Action that provides President-elect Obama and the incoming Congress a policy framework for a comprehensive national broadband strategy.

Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the New America Foundation, and a member of President-Elect Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board, addressed a packed auditorium at the Ronald Reagan Building on Tuesday, November 18th.

Schmidt provided insight into the junction of technology and government, stressing that solid infrastructure is the key to an efficient and… more

With Google, Larry Page has gone a long way toward achieving the audacious goal he and co-founder Sergey Brin set for the company: "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible."

One of his current goals is equally ambitious: making the Internet itself accessible, anywhere and anytime, through pervasive and affordable wireless broadband networks. Page has helped lead Google's efforts over the past year to pry open both unused TV airwaves and closed cellular networks to promote… more

When the transition to digital TV is completed in February 2009, broadcasters will retain channels 2 to 51, but will actually be using less than half of that spectrum to broadcast over-the-air DTV signals. Local TV stations will be separated by empty channels, known as "white space" -- underutilized spectrum that new “smart radio” technologies can use for productive activities, including wireless broadband, without interfering with television reception. DARPA and other wireless innovators have already developed far… more

Spectrum has become one of the most valuable natural resources of the Information Age. Unlike other comparably valuable natural resources such as land and oil, it is owned by the public and allocated exclusively by the federal government. Also, unlike those resources, it is invisible both literally and figuratively: the general public does not understand—and consequently does not care about—its allocation. This combination of huge amounts of money at stake and public ignorance creates the classic conditions for special interest… more

In the coming weeks, the FCC will set the bidding and service rules for the auction of the 700MHz channels being freed up by the DTV transition—“beachfront” airwaves ideal for the provision of high-speed wireless broadband services. This last big sale of prime spectrum is expected to raise $10 to $20 billion in federal revenue. But far more important to the economy and to consumers is whether this auction promotes broadband deployment and price competition in every part of the… more

After watching first responder communications systems fail on 9/11 and after Hurricane Katrina, with tragic results, the vital importance of spectrum management for public safety communications has taken center stage in recent years. Congress recently passed legislation to reallocate 24 MHz of prime spectrum from TV to public safety in 2009, as part of America’s transition from analog to digital television. Currently, this new spectrum is set to be managed under the same assumptions and orthodoxies as current public safety… more

On June 28, 2006, the Senate Commerce Committee approved wide-ranging (and highly-contentious) telecommunications legislation which is now awaiting action on the Senate floor. The Advanced Telecommunications Opportunity and Reform Act (HR 5252) includes two key sections meant to remove barriers to rural and municipal wireless broadband networks. Title VI would open up much-needed -- and currently unused -- TV spectrum for use by unlicensed wireless broadband devices, and Title V would lift state-level restrictions on municipal broadband networks.… more

At its recent markup, the House Commerce Committee included language in the digital TV transition bill directing the FCC to complete its proposed rulemaking to open up vacant, unused channels in the TV band spectrum (so-called "white space") for unlicensed wireless broadband use (Docket 04-186).

The reallocation of prime airwaves from "broadcast to broadband" has been a major impetus behind DTV legislation. In May 2004, the FCC issued a proposed rulemaking to allow "smart" wireless broadband devices to… more

From the fire fighters who died on 9/11 to the rescue workers struggling to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, the absence of reliable and interoperable voice and data communications among public safety agencies has become an urgent national dilemma. Within the coming weeks, the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up DTV legislation likely to impose a hard deadline on the clearance of TV channels 52 to 69 -- freeing up precious spectrum for public safety voice interoperability and for… more

We've all heard the dire statistics. The U.S. has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband penetration. The dominant cable and DSL duopoly is failing to bring affordable broadband connectivity

In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, local TV broadcasters won free use of spectrum worth tens of billions of dollars. In the decade since, broadcasters have sought a seemingly endless array of additional subsidies -- including more spectrum, tax breaks, the broadcast flag, DTV tuner mandate, and DTV multicasting must-carry rights -- to speed their DTV transition. A new book by New America Foundation Senior Research Fellow J.H. Snider explains how these lobbying feats were accomplished. He… more

The rapid development of Internet applications and digital convergence has already rendered the Telecom Act of 1996 largely obsolete and a source of contentious regulatory uncertainty. Sen. Ted Stevens, the likely new Senate Commerce Committee Chairman, is expected to initiate a major debate on overhauling the Act next year. Voice over IP and the potential for wireless broadband as an alternative last-mile pipe further complicate the policy debate.

What kind of deregulation - or re-regulation - is best for stimulating… more

Last August, Berlin completed its transition to terrestrial, over-the-air digital TV. From start to finish, Berlin's DTV transition took approximately 9 months. The most interesting feature of its transition plan was that instead of giving subsidies to complete the transition to broadcasters, they were given to consumers. Consumers dependent on broadcast TV were given a voucher so they could purchase digital-to-analog converter boxes allowing them to continue to watch broadcast TV on their analog TV sets.

In… more

What do hundreds of truck stops, thousands of public schools, millions of residences and countless businesses have in common? They all rely on a commonly owned, public resource to receive and distribute broadband connectivity to citizens, employees, industry processes, and innumerable future applications.

The unlicensed spectrum bands are no longer the sole domain of radio hobbyists -- nor are they the "junk bands" for scores of everyday,… more

The FCC currently has on its plate a half-dozen or more major proposals to give licensed incumbents spectrum rights windfalls worth billions of dollars. Although it is not even close to being the biggest proposed windfall, the 800 MHz rebanding plan, initiated by Nextel, has to date been the most publicized and controversial. Unlike most FCC proceedings that focus on efficiency considerations, this proceeding heavily focuses on the equity of giving an incumbent a spectrum windfall, even if the result… more