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FCC Commercializes More Bandwidth for 3G services
prostoalex writes "Federal Communications Commission opened up 90 MHz of previously reserved bandwidth for next-generation wireless services. The FCC news release (MS Word, PDF, apparently no HTML) specifies the following ranges to be available for commercial exploitation: 1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2155 MHz. Currently the licenses are issued to the business capable of providing "substantial service by the end of the license term", later on the licenses will be sold to the highest bidder. There's also this announcement about millimeter wave broadband frequencies."
It's great to see they're actually looking for companies who are going to do something with the bandwidth.
The farcical 3G auctions of the 'dot com boom' era was the nail in the coffin of many companies who spent billions of dollars on spectrum they had no idea what to do with.
Let's just pray some enterprising companies somewhat aligned to PC users get their mitts on it. If the telcos snap it all up you can bet it'll priced out of the market for mobile PC applications (wireless VPNs, general high-speed wireless access etc).
A CTO impressing his lunchmates with his swanky cell phone displaying video clips of his kids is one thing, but there's a killer app out there right now for a cheap, wireless, ubiquitous service for PC users.
Bill, Steve, Paul... somebody?
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Rare Window - free your photos
aka .. "profitted enough to fork over serious cash for a license"
FREE THE SPECTRUM.
LOW WATT BROADCASTING FOR ALL.
I won't claim to be omniscient regarding 3G, but having recently been laid off from a RF component company I've had some insight into 3G basestation deployment in North America and Europe.
3 gdream.htm2003/5179.htmr oduct/latestresearch/0083 76.htm
My opinion is that one can throw all the spectrum you want at 3G and it will continue to flounder as it has been for the past three years. Companies such as the one I worked for have been looking for the take-off of 3G for quite a while and have now resigned themselves to the fact that it may never really happen. One of the only things pushing deployment in Europe is the fact that licence holders will loose their licences if they don't put any basestations in the field by a certain deadline.
The problem is not a lack of spectrum or too much beauraucracy. Rather is it is a general lack of demand for services that 3G can provide. Here is an abbreviated list of links to stories that support my hypothesis. I acknowledge that there may exist evidence to the contrary out there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2248376.stm
http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/April
http://www.tiu.ie/
http://www.ovum.com/go/p