Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile on White Spaces
Posted on January 21, 2008 By: Mike, VoIP Facts: The Blog email author
Filed Under Articles
Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile have their own ideas of how white spaces in the TV spectrum should be used. According to RCR Wireless News in an article posted January 4th, the two companies want the FCC to approve the use of white space between channels, becoming available in 2009, for wireless backhaul services on a fixed license basis.
As noted in my previous post, the White Spaces Coalition, a group that includes Google, Microsoft, and others, would use the unlicensed spectrum for building out wireless broadband networks. Because of the properties of this spectrum between the 2-698MHz range, the WSC believes it would be ideal for offering affordable Internet access to densely populated cities, as well as vast geographical areas that today have access only via dial-up.
The Association for Maximum Service TV opposes the use of the unused spectrum for unlicensed broadband, fearing it would cause interference in the digital TV range. Sprint and T-Mobile appear to be siding with the AMST, maintaining that only licensed use should be permitted, in that unlicensed devices could cause “harmful interference to important incumbent operations.”
For these Cellcos’, gaining the use of these swaths of spectrum for expensive backhaul, or data transfer operations, would indeed be a coup of sorts. Blogger Brough Turner of NMSCommunications believes that they should use dark fiber for backhaul, and leave the white spaces for more innovative technologies.
The FCC, who will begin testing wireless devices in the spectrum on January 24, now have another option for how to use the white space. Will they stand by their commitment to eliminate the Digital Divide in the U.S., expanding broadband Internet access for all nationwide? Or will the allure of licensing the spectrum and pumping more money into the Treasury sway them to further embed the cellular monopolies into the publics’ electromagnetic radio waves?
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