Communications Daily

"We've got this harrowing economic environment and unprecedented opportunity to effect change. That tension is really very much at play in terms of fundraising," said Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute. "We've had a fairly banner year because the latter has really been winning out. People see the opportunities here and are willing

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein and a group of academics, laid out a proposed revamp of wireline and wireless broadband policy Monday at a New America Foundation conference. All argued that fundamental change is needed from the policies of the Bush administration. Original article (subscription required)

"We are very encouraged to hear that CTIA will join us in calling attention to the many bands of prime spectrum that are unused or grossly underutilized," said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at the New America Foundation. "Actual measurements of spectrum use show that less than 10 percent of the 'beachfront' frequencies below 3 GHz are in use even at peak times in the largest cities. Unlocking this wasted public resource is what motivated our successful… more

The coalition "is very definitely still interested in avoiding any unjustified cannibalization of TV white space by broadcast licensees unless they can demonstrate they need to do this to continue coverage to households within their" market who could lose access to DTV signals after the analog cutoff, New America Foundation Vice President Michael Calabrese told us. "We reiterated those concerns to commissioners" Friday. LINK (subscription required)

The technology is ready for smart radios to prevent interference by portable devices for wireless broadband, and in a few years a second phase of the DTV transition should get TV off the air, speakers said Tuesday at a conference held by the New America Foundation and Google at the company's headquarters. "Take TV off the air" in a few years, said Michael Calabrese, director of the foundation's Wireless Future Program, since 2002 an advocate of opening the TV… more

Public interest groups led by Public Knowledge fired back at CTIA and wireless carriers opposing their petition asking the FCC to declare that short codes and text messages come under anti-discrimination provisions of the Communications Act's Title II. The groups fear resistance could stall action on their petition and thought the time right to re-engage on the issue, said a supporter of the petition.

"Text messaging and short codes are vital forms of communications and deserve protection from discrimination imposed by… more

New America Foundation responds to concerns about white space technology interfering with adjacent channels that are used by broadcasters:

Using adjacent channel leakage ratio and similar measures to deal with any interference in adjacent channels will keep white spaces devices from causing harmful interference to TV broadcasts, a coalition led by the New America Foundation told the FCC. The complexity of wideband data waveforms across the CMRS, PCS and now the Advanced Wireless Services bands led to "sophisticated tools," not… more

Ten public interest groups told the FCC that M2Z's proposal for a nationwide, free wireless broadband network at 2.1 GHz is attractive but has too many failings to support. Instead, the groups urged the agency to examine making the spectrum available for unlicensed use or through a license but with strict conditions imposing open access requirements. Google made similar arguments in a separate filing with the agency. The comments added to a flurry of activity at the FCC on an… more

Spectrum value is lost when incumbents get the FCC to modify their licenses at no charge, said J.H. Snider, research director of New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program. To protect spectrum value, the FCC should charge for license revisions, Snider, author of a paper on spectrum "giveaway," told a Tuesday panel. Another participant estimated that the U.S. loses out on $10 billion yearly in potential fees. Changing the parameters of a license changes the value of… more

A broad group of 29 executives at high-tech companies and public interest groups sent all members of Congress a letter asking for their support in opening broadcast "white spaces" for use in offering wireless broadband. Signers included companies like Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Intel, and public interest groups from the New America Foundation to the Consumer Federation of America. Supporters said they wanted to make clear to Congress before their upcoming recess the extent of support for opening white spaces. more