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FCC Opens Wireless 3.6GHZ Band

mdeb writes "Broadband Reports has a story on the FCC opening up a portion of the 3.6 GHz spectrum. "This initiative would reserve 50 megahertz in the 3.6 GHz band for unlicensed wireless Internet operations. Setting aside this spectrum would make it easier for vendors to build devices that would work across all Wi-Fi frequencies and create new wireless Internet opportunities in rural America. The new proposal would allow transmissions at power levels higher than currently permitted for Part 15 unlicensed devices.""

21 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Excellent by 2names · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now I can Internet-up my cow herd. Sweet.

    --
    "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
  2. Rural Broadband via Wireless by Johnny+Doughnuts · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does this mean if I lived out in the 'country', and my neighbours had nodes, or a corporate sponsership program was setup, internet would be readily available?

    (honest question, seriously)

    1. Re:Rural Broadband via Wireless by hab136 · · Score: 5, Informative
      Does this mean if I lived out in the 'country', and my neighbours had nodes, or a corporate sponsership program was setup, internet would be readily available?

      Check out http://www.locustworld.com/ for information about mesh networks.. essentially you hop along your neighbors until you get to a neighbor that has internet, thereby giving everyone internet.

    2. Re:Rural Broadband via Wireless by Uber+Banker · · Score: 3, Informative

      Shame you are modded as Troll. Mods must not realse the 3.6GHz spectrum would be quite useful for longer distance communication, for example it would make a wireless net (literally) covering low population density areas a lot more feasible - i.e. te 'country'.

  3. Hopefully the cordless phones will stay out by DrewBeavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd hate to see a repeat of the 2.4GHz problems I see with other unlicensed operations interfering with data services.

  4. Neighbors with nodes by AtariAmarok · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean if I lived out in the 'country', and my neighbours had nodes

    They can always go to the city and go to a hospital and get those things removed.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  5. Satellites! by ponds · · Score: 3, Insightful

    On one hand, widespread proliferation of broadband without having to hang out near a hotspot will change everything, but on the other hand.... I really hope they dont do something like WEP again.

  6. Covering all spectrums? by drewzhrodague · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With so many different rf ranges available for potential IP traffic, how do we cover all bands? I'm psyched that there are so many options available to us, b, g, a. It's nice to see so many unintended uses. Welcome to the future!

    --
    Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
  7. Obligatory Fake Quote from article by mrn121 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "...and it is also noted that no longer will food have to be put IN microwaves to heat it." -obligatory fake quote from article

  8. Re:Job opportunities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    We regret to inform you that all jobs pertaining to your skills are being outsourced to India.

    Have a nice day!

  9. Re:Does distance scale with frequency? by pholower · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But since this is only been reserved for internet usage you will not have all of the other crap on this range as you do on the 2.4GHz band. Cell phones, portable handhelds, WiFi, 2-ways... etc. This list goes on, and companies keep building more items for them.

    --
    -- johntracy.com, because everybody else is wrong.
  10. Higher freq. & higher power = signal penetrati by StateOfTheUnion · · Score: 4, Informative
    The higher the frequency, the worse the performance for going through walls and other barriers for a given transmission power . . . Allowing transmission at higher power might help compensate for the higher frequency . . . Hopefully this won't be like 4.X Ghz which doesn't seem to go through walls very well

    So soon I will be able to have a 2.4 Ghz wireless network, and a 3.6 Ghz wireless phone and they shouldn't interfere with each other right?

  11. Re:Does distance scale with frequency? by microwave_EE · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not necessarily. Distance scales by the inverse of the atmospheric absorption. Of course there are many, many other factors involved: EM noise from the environment, RF noise from pre-existing transmitters using this frequency range, power of the transmitter, effective area of the transmitter (or receiver), modulation scheme (how data is modulated onto the RF carrier--for example, AM, FM, PM, digitization then FM, etc), and a whole host of other issues.

    --
    I'll take you to the ball, Barbara Manitee!!!
  12. Goodie, more power in the air! by bo0ork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Luckily, no-one has proved that high-frequency constant radiation is bad for your health. Yet.

    --
    Does everything include nothing?
  13. Re:Higher freq. & higher power = signal penetr by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think this new band is intended for outdoor last-mile Internet access, so penetration of buildings is not a concern. If you use 3.6GHz 802.16, 5GHz 802.11a, and a 2.4GHz cordless phone, they won't overlap (although your brain may explode from the alphabet soup).

  14. Re:Does distance scale with frequency? by AdamG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    50% more distance is 125% more area, though.

  15. Go to the source by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 4, Informative

    Instead of "Broadband Reports reports that RCR Wireless News reports that the FCC said..." let's just see what the FCC said: news release, Powell statement.

  16. Re:802.16a wireless in this frequency range? by Wesley+Felter · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why do I keep on thinking that the 802.16a extension to WiMax wireless networking will allocated that 50 MHz allocation in the 3.6 GHz range?

    Spectrum isn't allocated to protocols, but you can bet that ISPs will use 802.16 in this new band.

    For those who don't know, 802.16a is the standard that allows wireless broadband Internet even if you're in a moving vehicle up to 250 km/h or 155 mph...

    Nope. 802.16a is for fixed devices. 802.16e will support low-speed mobility and 802.20 will support high-speed mobility (e.g. moving cars).

    And BTW, 802.16a has already been obsoleted by 802.16revD.

  17. Whats my power limit? by randomErr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was wondering how much power can I put out? .1 watts? 10 watts? 100 watts?

    --
    You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
  18. HA! There goes WPAN and wireless USB! by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 3, Informative

    A high-powered 50 Mhz wide slot in the 3.6g band?

    That's right BANG in the middle of channel 1 of the OFDM PHY proposal for IEEE 802.15 broadband wireless Personal Area Networks. (The proposed initial deployment was to use systems that cycle through bands 1 through 3 with each transmission.)

    WUSB was also to be based on the OFDM proposal.

    This should throw an extra monkeywrench into both of 'em. (Possibly more into the OFDM than the DS-CDMA version, though I'm not sure of that.)

    = = = = = =

    The OFDM and DS-CDMA factions couldn't agree on a standard. They DID agree on a "common signaling method" that both systems could talk with only tiny tweaks to the radios, and a protocol for time-dividing the slot, so if they both ended up depolyed they could take turns rather than stepping on each other (with lots of extra system numbers available for future systems to play, too).

    Then they split up.

    The DS-CDMA faction was ready with silicon, needing only any tiny tweaks resulting from the standardization process. IMHO The more populous OFDM faction is now trying to delay their deployment in various ways, most involving announcements of new products to delay adoption of the DS silicon.

    One of those announcements was an "improvement" to the MAC layer (requiring the DS folk to delay deployment until they can get working OFDM silicon to test against or risk incompatibility). Another is the wireless USB announcement, based on the OFDM proposal, which might get system makers to hold off on adoption in the hope of getting something that plugs into the existing USB stack.

    I wonder if this is the FCC saying "Use it or lose it!"?

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  19. Re:Does distance scale with frequency? by timeOday · · Score: 3, Funny

    And 8550% more volume in 11-dimensional space!