CTIA Wireless IT & E 2009: FCC Plans to Free Spectrum, Remove Barriers

FCC Chairman’s Remarks at CTIA 2009

For several years, Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), rural and
independent telcos and MSOs have been urging the FCC and U.S.  government
to free up licensed spectrum to enable them to build faster, more robust and
reliable wireless access networks.  Both fixed and mobile WiMAX players
would be major beneficiaries of this initiative as WiMAX technology would likely
be used by network operators to provide much better wireless broadband service
than is possible with unlicensed spectrum, which is prone to interference,
coverage gaps and other problems. 

The CTIA – The Wireless Association® ("CTIA") has recently petitioned the FCC
to reallocate 800 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband providers by 2015 (see
next section of this article).  At his October 7th CTIA Conference keynote
address, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made reference to that petition by
saying that a lack of licensed spectrum is "a looming crisis" as U.S. 
consumers increasingly rely on mobile devices such as smart phones, netbooks,
eReaders, etc. that require heavy wireless data usage. 

In his address, Genachowski said that the FCC would examine how to reallocate
spectrum for wireless Internet services and look towards ways to promote
secondary markets for airwaves, giving companies that hold spectrum licenses the
right to lease those licenses to others.  "No sector of the communications
industry holds greater potential to enhance America’s economic competitiveness,
spur job creation, and improve the quality of our lives," Genachowski said. 
"My goals with regard to mobile are the same that define and drive all our work:
fostering innovation and investment, promoting competition, empowering and
protecting consumers, all in an effort to help ensure the U.S.  has a
world-leading communications infrastructure for the 21st century.  As this
audience knows, it takes years to reallocate spectrum and put it to use. 
And there are no easy pickings on the spectrum chart."

Genachowski went on to say that the FCC would also try to clear obstacles for
wireless network operators trying to install new 4G networks, including speeding
up approvals for new cellphone tower construction, which often are met with
local community resistance.  In this regard, the FCC will propose a federal
"shot-clock" on tower-siting, while still being sensitive to local
jurisdictions.  The siting of towers has long been an obstacle for wireless
carriers and tower companies as subscribers embrace mobile services, but city
and local governments often don’t want the accompanying infrastructure needed
for those services.  Genachowski said he understands that Internet
providers and wireless network operators need to manage their networks. 
"We recognize there are differences between wired and wireline network
technologies," said Genachowski.  "They are different networks and because
they are different, I have said the rules that are adopted need to allow for
reasonable network management.  But we need to have clear rules of the road
for everyone regardless of how they access the Internet."

In a press release issued shortly after Genachowski made his keynote remarks,
AT&T Wireless Division CEO Ralph de la Vega called for a fact-based discussion
with the FCC.  "Before we begin ‘fixing’ what isn’t broken, we need to be
thoughtful about the consequences," said de la Vega. 

In reaction to the Commissioner’s speech, Sprint issued a press release that
supports Mr.  Genachowski’s recognition of the importance of mobile
broadband networks.  "Sprint Nextel shares with FCC Chairman Julius
Genachowski the view that American business and consumers benefit from the
deployment of 4G mobile broadband networks.  At Sprint, we are proud to be
the first and only nationwide wireless carrier to offer 4G (i.e.  mobile
WiMAX) in the United States.  For Sprint customers, 4G isn’t the future, 4G
is here now.  Sprint 4G is available in 16 markets today and we expect to
offer Sprint 4G service to 120 million people in 80 markets by the end of 2010."

"Sprint is pleased that the Chairman recognized that there are real and relevant
differences between operating wired and wireless networks.  Sprint wants
customers to be able to access the applications and the Internet sites they
want, when they want.  We look forward to working with Chairman Genachowski
and the FCC as they create policies that meet the expectations of consumers,
continue innovation in device development, and preserve the ability of carriers
to manage networks in a reasonable and responsible manner."

The CTIA Filing- A Request for 800 MHz of Additional Spectrum over Six Years

As the FCC moves forward with the development of a National Broadband Plan,

the CTIA filing urged the FCC to "commit to identifying and allocating a
significant amount of spectrum – with a goal of at least 800 MHz – for licensed
commercial wireless services within the next six years.  While it is
impossible to quantify precisely what amount of additional spectrum would be
"future proof," such an allocation would be an important step towards meeting
rapidly accelerating demand and maintaining U.S.  leadership in the global
mobile broadband marketplace."

Recognizing the long lead times necessary to achieve such major spectrum
allocations, CTIA urged the FCC to begin immediately.  They also requested
policymakers work to meet short-term needs by pairing and allocating
readily-available spectrum in the 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz bands for
licensed commercial wireless use as quickly as possible.

"With this filing, CTIA provides further evidence that identifying and
allocating significant amounts of additional spectrum for licensed commercial
wireless services is imperative if U.S.  providers are to continue to lead
the wireless world by expanding wireless networks and services to meet rapidly
expanding consumer demand."

CTIA highlighted the following critical points for assessing U.S. 
commercial wireless spectrum needs:

-The ITU has estimated that commercial wireless will need an allocation of 1,300
MHz by 2015 – meaning an additional 800 MHz of spectrum in the U.S.  – in
order to meet surging demand of mobile broadband services.

-56% of Americans have accessed the Internet by wireless means.
-Mobile wireless broadband growth continues to outpace every other broadband
platform, with net additions greater than those of DSL and cable modem combined.

-Pew Research estimates that, by 2020, mobile devices will be the primary
Internet devices for most people in the world.

-Bandwidth-intensive applications driving mass-market adoption of mobile
broadband include highly sought after consumer and business applications such as
mobile video, social networking, enterprise productivity, user-generated
content,
instant messaging, location-based services, and Web 2.0 applications.

-Watching a YouTube video consumes 100 times the bandwidth of a voice call.

-Estimates place the mobile data traffic footprint of a single mobile subscriber
in 2015 at 450 times what it was in 2005.

-The Rysavy paper [1] concludes that "several users within the same cell sector
engaging simultaneously in high throughput applications (e.g., video
streamlining) can quickly strain the network impacting the user experience for
every consumer
accessing the network, even if they are not themselves engaging in bandwidth
intensive activities."

-The Rysavy paper also finds that "it is unlikely that operators will be able to
deliver satisfactory service in the future at these high traffic volumes using
existing spectrum."

-Our global competitors have launched commercial wireless spectrum deployment
plans that outstrip U.S.  resources literally by hundreds of MHz.

So what does all this mean?

Essentially CTIA is asking the FCC to work with the Federal government to
identify and allocate up to 800 MHz of additional spectrum over the next six
years.  They have also have requested policymakers to meet short-term
spectrum needs by pairing and allocating readily available spectrum. 
Wireless industry lobbyists have spent months trying to persuade congress to
pass legislation that would require the government to do an inventory of the
U.S.’s airwaves and how they are being used.  The U.S.  government
controls much of the available airwaves, which are set aside for military and
other official uses.  If the government was to find that chunks of spectrum
it owns is not being used efficiently, that spectrum could be freed up and
auctioned off to wireless network operators.

Immediately after CTIA’s filing, President and CEO Steve Largent said: "As the
(FCC) Chairman and other FCC Commissioners understand, spectrum is our
industry’s backbone and is what encourages innovation and competition.  In
order to facilitate the ‘virtuous cycle’ of the industry, more spectrum must be
made available.  As spectrum is brought to market, the virtuous cycle
begins, as networks are upgraded to add capacity and greater capabilities,
handsets are then developed to take advantage of next generation networks,
application and content developers then create new content to take advantage of
new handset capabilities, and ultimately, consumers demand more.  It’s a
cycle that never ends as long as spectrum is available."

"The (wireless) industry needs access to more spectrum so we can continue to
meet the growing consumer demand – whether it’s for personal reasons such as
mHealth or for environmental reasons such as smart grids.  Other countries
around the world have recognized the need to facilitate this virtuous cycle and
have identified hundreds of megahertz of spectrum to reallocate for licensed
commercial use."

Qualcomm: More Wireless Spectrum is Urgently Needed

On October 8th, Qualcomm’s father and son executives Irwin & Paul Jacobs sent a
clear message that more wireless spectrum is urgently needed to sustain current
trends in wireless data traffic.  Like AT&T and other incumbent wireless
carriers, they warned against strict wireless net neutrality regulation that
could restrict operators’ ability to manage their networks.

Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm’s current CEO, said that engineers are at their limit in
terms of squeezing out data transfer efficiencies within the current frequency
bands.  "We’ve done what we can in the lab to make mobile devices more
efficient," he said.  "We will have to use different tricks now to get to
the next level." Paul said that wireless operators, when building the next
generation of 4G wireless networks (e.g.  LTE which Qualcomm supports),
will have to build more dense networks with towers spaced closer together. 
The younger Jacobs said that wireless operators also need to add more capacity
to their backhaul networks.  The problem today is that many connections
from the cell towers to the backbone don’t have enough capacity to support the
traffic coming from within the cell sites.  As more cell sites are added
and bandwidth per cell site increases, this problem will only get worse. 
Continuing Paul said: "With data there are large peak to average ratios, Data
traffic is very bursty, which means you need more head room in the backhaul
network."

Qualcomm founder and Chariman Irwin Jacobs said that managing the interference
among multiple radios will be a challenge, but that engineers will be able
respond with a solution.  He suggested using femto cells, which create
personal cell sites to propagate cellular phone signals in homes or offices.

Paul Jacobs said that he thinks Mr.  Genachowski understands the wireless
industry’s challenges.  But he also went on to say that other regulators
and politicians may need more of an education.  "During the Internet bubble
there was all kind of funding for dark fiber," he said.  "And I think
people thought carrying those bits was free.  But it’s not.  It’s
expensive.  And I think the regulators may not realize how expensive it
could get."

That doesn’t mean eliminate licensing or exclusive licenses.  But it does
mean that "expand capacity" can no longer be equivalent to "find more spectrum."

Alternative Approaches:

At the CTIA conference, Ravi Potharlanka, COO of wireless backhaul provider
FiberTower, said he was looking to get more spectrum from TV broadcasters. 
He recommends setting aside up to six TV channels in rural areas for wireless
use, with enough separation from broadcasters to eliminate "practically any
possibility" of interference.

Speaking on a CTIA panel titled "Facilitating U.S.  Wireless Leadership"
Gig Sohn, President of Public Knowledge, said the FCC should follow through with
figuring out whether the unlicensed devices it has already approved in the TV
band be allowed to boost power in rural areas.  Furthermore, she said that
it would be impossible to wrest control over spectrum held by incumbents with
"most of the spectrum that would have value to industry." But she wasn’t talking
about TV broadcasters.  In fact, they have already given up a quarter of
their spectrum in the DTV switch, and share what they have with unlicensed
microphones and, more recently, lower powered wireless devices.

Sohn went on to say that the groups not willing to share spectrum are the
Defense Department and Federal Aviation Administration.  "We believe that
it will be impossible to convince government to abandon the spectrum it
controls, and that the better course is for the FCC, working with the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, to promote shared use of
federally-controlled spectrum."

Prescription for Universal Broadband Access in the US:

In an earlier interview, SCU Law Professor Allen Hammond and founding director
of the Broadband Institute of
California, detailed several key recommendations for making broadband access
pervasive and affordable to all living in the U.S.  These include:

-Federal government should release the White Space spectrum (the unused portions
of the new digital TV frequency bands- up to 700 MHz) for unlicensed Broadband
Wireless Access (BWA).  The spectrum released should have good signal
propagation characteristics in order to penetrate trees and buildings in the
signal path.  The cost to procure that spectrum needs to be low or zero to
encourage smaller network providers.  Regulatory barriers should be removed
from the process of operating and maintaining such BWA networks. 

-Other spectrum suitable for BWA should be made available by the federal
government to instigate the build-out of broadband wireless networks. 
Public-private partnerships should be encouraged to build such networks. 
Regulatory barriers should be relaxed. 

-A national "web of wireless networks" should be created that can be used in
responding to emergencies such as earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, floods,
tornados, national security threats, etc.  The federal government should
encourage inter-connection and interoperability of the multiple heterogeneous
municipal wireless networks that already exist.  By interconnecting such
networks and developing compatible network equipment, the U.S.  can
automate and co-ordinate the response to many different types of emergencies and
security threats.  After the Hurricane Katrina failures, most of us can
appreciate the necessity of a quick, automated response to emergencies, where
information is transmitted and shared over high-speed broadband wireless
networks.  Such a national network would be most valuable to the Dept of
Homeland Security.

- The National Broadband Plan should not prohibit municipal and private business
joint ventures to build broadband networks.  Rather, they should be
encouraged.  In such partnerships, the city becomes the anchor tenant while
a private carrier builds out the network.  There should be a significant
number of city government entities that use the network to establish a critical
mass of subscribers and traffic.  In the past, large incumbent telcos (e.g. 
Verizon) argued that building such a public- private network would discriminate
against them.  Prof.  Hammond believes that the FCC and federal
government should demand actual proof of such discrimination, rather than
tacitly accept the assumptions of the incumbent network provider. 
Regulatory barriers should be dismantled for broadband network build-outs. 
As a case in point, Allen notes that MSO’s and incumbent telcos lobbied their
opposition against municipal wireless networks to state legislatures.  As a
result, at least 16 states prohibited or severely restricted municipalities from
building wireless networks.

-Stipulate funding mechanisms (beyond the Broadband Stimulus bill), which are
needed for broadband network construction, operation, and maintenance as well as
subsidies to low income residents. 

_____________

Footnote:

[1.] Mobile Broadband Spectrum Demand, Rysavy Research, Dec.  2008 (http://www.rysavy.com/aboutus.html)