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FCC Wants to Open Bandwidth Market

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the opening-the-air-waves dept.

Trilliumjs wrote to us about a NYTimes article concering some of the latest moves from the FCC. The FCC wants to turn some of the unused airwaves into an open market so that companies can pick up bandwidth as needed.

3 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. The bright side... by Proteus · · Score: 3
    Many have been quick to point out potential problems: bandwidth "squatting", price increase to the consumer, large empires controlling more bandwidth, etc.

    While all of those are valid concerns, there are some significant advantages to the FCC plan. Firstly, it opens up currently restricted broadcast bandwidth - this will allow those with the proper funds to make some very valuable advances: at the least, either more or better quality (image, sound, not content :) broadcasts. Secondly, opening the bandwidth will reduce the temptation for corporate entities to push the edges of public bands (i.e. CB radio, Shortwave, etc) to gain greater range and quality broadcasts. Thirdly, new services will expand to fill these channels: wireless ISP's and LAN/WAN's (as mentioned elsewhere) for example.

    All in all, I would like to see the official FCC proposal before I make a call on wether this is a Good Thing(tm) or not.


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  2. Radio Spectrum Managment by Minupla · · Score: 3

    Hrm, this sounds an aweful lot like the IP space problem the net was going to run into. Only problem is you can't just extend the radio spectrum to allow more users can you?

    Well, not as such, but you can use it a lot more effectively. For instance, a lot of the spectrum is being used by analog signaling device. For example 2 way radios. Everyone here knows that voice signals can be digitized and sent over an analog medium in a multiplexed fashion (PCS anyone?) a lot more effientenly then they can be sent over in their latent analog forms.

    I think it's far past time that we made a paridim shift in our electromagnetic spectrum managment.

    Step 1: Phase out analog transmission. Set a 5 year end of life on all current analog licences.
    Step 2: Type Approve a new digital radio that is multiband, where the radio will try first on the highest (most plentiful, shortest haul) frequencies, and if it can't find a node, fall back untill it can. Ideally these radios should also act as packet repeaters and by neccesity include a public key encryption system.
    Step 3: Establish, using licencing fees a N/A wide (remember boys and girls, frequencies don't care about borders. All this has to be taken with Canada and Mexico in mind) digipeter network.

    Volia. You now charge your licencees not by how much spectrum they're occupying but by a much more real world measure, how many bytes they send.

    Licencees gain the ability to operate anywhere on the continent, not just in their own repeater area, if there are no repeaters around we eventually fall back to HF, which can bounce around the world if it has to, but this would require a very different radio structure then the usual VHF models of today, so would probably only be used in circumstances where it absolutly required. In most cases repeater coverage would do it.

    And the best part, most of the technologies here already exisit! Digitial voice transmission, TCP/IP for a networking protocol, digipeters, are all in use now in both commercial and amature radio circles.

    Unfortunaly this will never come to pass, the idea of the US using such an open source, co-operative system goes too much against their capitalist nature. It won't happen till they absoltuly run out of spectrum space.

    In the meantime, what will they do about violations under the current system. If someone who is leasing spectrum space between 2am and 5am violates one of the FCC/ITT code regs, whose licence gets yanked?

    Minupla

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  3. you gotta be kidding by boarder · · Score: 5
    Look, the FCC may be "burdensome" and overbearing on some things, but they are by no means useless.

    There has to be restrictions on airwaves (with current technology) otherwise anybody could interfere with anybody. Think about it. You know all those FCC disclaimers on electronic equipment that says it can't interfere with other equipment and so on? That's there for a reason. If I could transmit anything I want on any channel, I couldn't be blamed if, say, I caused a commercial jet to crash. That also means that anybody could tap in on your cellular and cordless phone conversations (they already can very easily but this would make it more legal and even easier).

    You know all those satellites that pump information down from the heavens? Without logical, organized, and restrictions you could make any satellite completely useless just by the interference your satellite causes.

    The FCC may seem like a beurocratic waste of money, but there ARE real needs for them right now.

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