U.S. wireless gains measure of open access

You can please some of the people some of the time…

Industry analysis by expert Joanie Wexler, plus links to the day's wireless news headlines

The FCC last week laid down rules for its forthcoming spectrum auction in the 700MHz band.

The FCC conditions open up part, but not all, of the spectrum being auctioned off to unlocked devices that can be used with multiple carriers’ services. They also give subscribers access to cross-operator application and content services. And, finally, the public safety community gained some spectrum.

The rules, which might present some technical challenges in practice, theoretically offer something for everyone: carriers, handset makers, consumers, content providers and first responders. But — quelle surprise — there is grumbling. The telecom community wanted no conditions placed on spectrum usage, while big content providers, such as Google, wanted the FCC to require that winning bidders offer wholesale services to competitors in the fashion of a Telecom Act of 1996 Redux. It didn’t.

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The FCC last week laid down rules for its forthcoming spectrum auction in the 700MHz band.

The FCC conditions open up part, but not all, of the spectrum being auctioned off to unlocked devices that can be used with multiple carriers’ services. They also give subscribers access to cross-operator application and content services. And, finally, the public safety community gained some spectrum.

The rules, which might present some technical challenges in practice, theoretically offer something for everyone: carriers, handset makers, consumers, content providers and first responders. But — quelle surprise — there is grumbling. The telecom community wanted no conditions placed on spectrum usage, while big content providers, such as Google, wanted the FCC to require that winning bidders offer wholesale services to competitors in the fashion of a Telecom Act of 1996 Redux. It didn’t.

There is whining about the FCC wanting 700MHz networks to be “public-safety grade.” What that means is that the portion of the network reserved for shared public safety and commercial use (with public safety getting priority) must be highly resilient and offer very extensive coverage, including inside buildings and in lightly populated service areas. These are expensive conditions that wouldn’t necessarily represent the best business decisions for carriers operating in a capitalistic vacuum.

All camps can never be satisfied, because they consider only their own business interests. As mere bystander, I personally don’t think it is unreasonable that endeavors involving wireless spectrum—which is a finite resource ultimately overseen by a given nation’s government—should accommodate both the public good and private enterprise. Public and private interests, though, mix poorly in the context of building expensive networks that differ in business models and functional goals yet must share resources and be interoperable.

Still, can you really compare society’s yawning need for a unified nationwide public-safety network in the U.S. with the loss of some carrier revenue? Knowing that it’s only a matter of time until the next Katrina-like disaster or terrorist attack, consider the dilemma raised by Andy Seybold, wireless consultant extraordinaire (I’m paraphrasing slightly):

Do you accommodate the 3 million first responders dedicated to protecting us or the 300 million consumers who want to make calls anytime and anywhere?

A tough call, certainly, but at least the FCC has laid some groundwork to help us achieve both goals.

Read more about wireless & mobile in Network World's Wireless & Mobile section.

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.