Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Congress Wants Federal Government To Sell 1755-1780 MHz Spectrum Band

Posted by samzenpus on from the for-sale-by-owner dept.

GovTechGuy writes "With next year's reverse auction of TV spectrum not expected to sate the wireless industry's growing demand for mobile broadband, lawmakers are turning up the heat on the Obama administration to auction the 1755-1780 MHz band, which is considered especially desirable for mobile phone use. However, the Pentagon and other federal agencies are already using those airwaves for everything from flying drones and surveillance to satellites and air combat training. They say it would take ten years and $18 billion just to vacate the band so it can be sold."

8 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Nice fight! by Exitar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Capitalists vs Warmongers!

  2. Lobbyists by Etherwalk · · Score: 4, Informative

    lawmakers are turning up the heat on the Obama administration

    lobbyists are turning up the heat on Congress.

    Fixed that for you.

    Hint: https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000076 [AT&T profile at opensecrets]

    1. Re:Lobbyists by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      That is the meat of it, Etherwalk. But it's worth noting there really is a bandwidth shortage. I was part of the "band clearing" effort for the relatively disused 1710-1755 Mhz AWS band and it's extremely painful.

      http://www.ntia.doc.gov/report/2013/sixth-annual-progress-report-relocation-federal-radio-systems-1710-1755-mhz-spectrum-ban

      The military, and other Federal agencies, both buy and maintain equipment that lasts virtually forever and the cost of new equipment that uses more modern bands is enormous. In many cases my employer simply purchased it for them. It doesn't matter if the FCC has sold you the band, if using it is going to interfere with life-saving traffic you have to have a "fix" that is better than sending them repeated violation notices.

      Much like with Linux, the basic problem is with the users. 8 years ago voice traffic was the largest use of a wireless carrier's spectrum with 15-25% shaved off for GPRS-EDGE (or basic 3G UMTS) data comm. Now voice is a trivial component, and "phones" spend hours a day streaming Netflix and doing other things that consume 20x more bandwidth than a mere voice conversation. While Moore's law has applied nicely to handset capabilities, the pace at which spectrum opens up has not kept pace. LTE makes better use of the new spectrum, but it already requires a much better SNR than it's predecessors, there is no jump to "LTE2" that will save us from being this spot again in a few years, and people already want high-def video on their tablets.

      So, actually "now" is the right time to push for freeing up some more spectrum so it will be available in the nick of time, just like the 3G spectrum for Apple's IPad explosion wasn't.

  3. Screw that. by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Make it public airwaves and give it to the ham radio operators. It's time they gave back some spectrum to us that has been stolen over the years.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  4. I hate this policy by scribble73 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I hate this policy, of selling our public bandwidth to private corporations. I just hate it.

    Airwaves are public. The Government should not be selling property that belongs to all of us. Leasing or licensing bandwidth for some specific period of time is one thing, but transferring ownership is another. We should not "privatize" this.

    I am dismayed to see so many politicians and technical types just accepting actions like this, without any policy discussions taking place -- beyond closed-door meetings at the FCC, which are not shared with the public.

    tt77

  5. Headline is wrong by erroneus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It should read:

    Congressional 'contributors' want federal government to sell 1755-1780 MHz Spectrum band

  6. Figures by guttentag · · Score: 3, Insightful

    lawmakers are turning up the heat on the Obama administration to auction the 1755-1780 MHz band

    I figured it was only a matter of time before Congress pushed to sell off 1776 to the highest bidder. They've been pushing to sell off the Post Office's business for the last 6 years by forcing a financially sound organization into insolvency (see paragraph 3 here). Why not sell off American Independence itself and Common Sense while they're at it? It's like we gave the keys to our house to service employees and they're auctioning off the contents to lobbyists through the front door to the highest bidder, keeping the profits for themselves.

  7. Spectrum allocation by snsh · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's startling when you look at a chart of frequency allocation and see how much is allocated to DOD, maritime, and obselete tech. Meanwhile you have everyone and their neighbor competing over 11 channels for Wifi.