[CWN-Summit] Re: Spectrum updates

Sascha Meinrath sascha at ucimc.org
Thu Jul 7 09:20:38 CDT 2005


Hi all,

> On the licensing issue, I'm afraid that the written record strongly 
> disagrees with you.  Being FOR licensing is, by the very nation of the 
> either or choice here, the same as being AGAINST unlicensed.

I would have to agree with Marlon on this.  The one caveat I would add 
to this is that license-holders could choose to show their good will 
towards unlicensed by opening up the frequencies they're already leasing 
to low-powered, unlicensed devices.  "Interference temperatures" and 
today's transceiver technology allow mixed-use of the same spectrum; 
however, I have yet to hear _a single_ license holder come out in 
support of this idea and open up their band.  So I'd like to put this 
back on the table -- if license-holders aren't anti-unlicensed, why not 
opening up your bands to low-powered unlicensed use?  Until then, this 
artificial dichotomy of being either pro-/anti-unlicensed will continue 
to exist.

In the end, I think that the 3650-3700 band scares the hell out of 
license holders because it will demonstrate that (quasi)licensed (base 
stations) and unlicensed (CPE-type) devices can coexist within the same 
band without causing harmful interference.  It will demonstrate that 
hardware developed over the past several decades allows far more access 
to the public airwaves and far more efficient use of existing spectrum 
than we see under current policies.  Thus, the 3650-3700 band will bring 
tremendous pressure to bear to revamp our spectrum policy (whose 
allocation, after all, is mainly based on what was feasible with 1930s 
technology).  I, for one, believe that radio technology has come quite a 
ways in the past 70+ years -- and the 3650-3700 band is one of the first 
major spectrum-allocation innovations I've seen.

So why then are major spectrum incumbents fighting so hard to keep this 
innovation at bay?  I just don't buy the rhetoric that they're "looking 
out for the little guy" -- I think they're still stuck in a "command and 
control" mentality.  License-incumbents' rhetoric has been that without 
single-user control over a frequency we'd have chaos -- I believe that 
today's technology just doesn't fit their business model.

--Sascha





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