Will open spectrum be allowed?

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Who controls the licensed spectrum for our WiMax wireless internet future?

As a result of the recent acquisitions by two RBOC?s and the merger of Sprint/Nextel these 3 companies have acquired most of the available licensed spectrum for wireless internet. The mega mergers bring together lots of big-company controlled license bandwidth. Verizon has GTE, MCI, Verizon Wireless, BellAtlantic, and NYNEX. SBC now owns Cingular (BellSouth and SBC mobile), AT&T Wireless, BellSouth, AT&T, and Ameritech. The upcoming FCC June 2006 auction for 1.7Ghz and 2.1Ghz of AWS (Advanced Wireless Service) is created for very large companies, not small competitors with Google-like services and prices, and will fetch about $15 billion, not small dollars.

The wireless internet type of spectrum is divided up as follows: 2.5Ghz is for commercial MMDS which is owned by BellSouth/AT&T and Sprint/NextTel and ?non-profit? religious/educational television known as BRS or EBS or ITFS. 700Mhz is used by analog television. 2.3Ghz was auctioned off in the 1990s and gobbled up XM radio and Nextwave. That leaves heavily used unlicensed spectrum you mentioned in your comment like 900Mhz which competes with paging and cordless telephones, 2.4Ghz which competes with muni-WiFi, every Linksys home router -- just look at how many are popping up on your laptop, cordless phones, microwave ovens, and on and on. With only 1% of internet users accessing through wireless, hogging 2.4Ghz will soon result in a log jam. 5.1Ghz - 5.8Ghz unlicensed spectrum mainly used by fixed wireless providers is filling fast.

WiMax is supposed to be the future competitive treat to the RBOCs. In Europe, Asia, and Latin America, WiMax equipment providers are rolling out product using 3.5Ghz bandwidth. But in the U.S. 3.5Ghz is for military radar. Between the WiMax equipment providers, the FCC, and the big bandwidth owners, there has been no final decision about what spectrum to use. Thus, WiMax is stalling in the U.S. In addition, once one of the licensed spectrum bands is selected by the WiMax equipment vendors, that spectrum will in all likelihood be owned by AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint/Nextel.

WiMax will be a reality in the U.S., but there will be no WiMax competitive threat or WiMax competition for the 3 big spectrum owners.

Posted by: bkeener   Posted on: 03/09/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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