Recently in spectrum Category

CTIA's CEO Steve Largent issued a "virtuous" statement in response to the FCC. He says more spectrum is needed for a "virtuous cycle" and to meet the demands of the U.S. market. He requested the 800 MHz and other available spectrum

"As the 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 FCC is investigating spectrum needed for wireless broadband as it readies its broadband plans.

The FCC  posted a notice seeking comments. It notes that entities "raised the issue that the United States will not have sufficient spectrum available to meet demands for wireless broadband in the near future."

The FCC request seeks to find out if there is enough support for the present and future demands of wireless broadband.

At broadband policy workshop in August carriers and backhaul providers expressed the the need for more spectrum and more efficient use of it.

T-Mobile and Motorola told the FCC of the increase mobile data traffic, and the need for more spectrum.

Here are the major questions from the notice:

• What is the ability of current spectrum allocations to support next-generation buildouts and the anticipated surge in demand and throughput requirements?
  
• What spectrum bands are best positioned to support mobile or fixed wireless broadband?
  
• What are the key issues in moving spectrum allocations toward their highest and best use in the public interest?
  
• What is the ability of current spectrum allocations to support both the fixed and mobile wireless backhaul market?
  

The Comment Date is October 23, 2009 and the Reply Comment Date isNovember 13, 2009

The unlicensed White Space is worth $100 Billion notes a new study, The Economic Value of Unlicensed Spectrum  written by Richard Thanki at Perspective Associates,  commissioned by Microsoft. White space could generate between $3.9 billion and $7.3 billion in value annually over 15 years.

The unlicensed and mostly vacated spectrum that is no longer occupied by analog TV signals could be used to create a new broadband delivery system.  White space use for broadband is opposed by the broadcast industry, who claim interference and a uncontrolled competitor for TV delivery.

Use of White Space is also opposed by broadband carriers, who don't want new competition.  It is possible that White Space could deliver broadband to rural markets.

According to a Cloudmark-commissioned survey from Harris Interactive, nearly two thirds of mobile device owners are concerned about security. The survey showed security concerns are preventing many users from adopting new mobile services for financial transactions and shopping. Spam is reaching more mobile users and becoming a greater nuisance.

Survey results showed that users' perception of security is proving to be a significant barrier to their adoption, especially for mobile financial transactions:

• 65 percent of all mobile device owners expressed concerns about the security of their device.
• Nearly half (46 percent) of these concerned device owners said that their worries about security prevented them from conducting activities on their mobile device.
• Of the activities mobile device owners said they were prevented from doing because of their concerns, financial transactions such as paying bills (73 percent), conducting banking activities (71 percent) and shopping (56 percent) were named most often.
• 79 percent of mobile device owners said that they have never sent or received confidential information of any kind through their device, which may further illustrate their lack of confidence in security.

The survey, polled 1,812 U.S. adults who own mobile devices.

Seven leading technology companies has banded together to promote the timely creation and operation of a white spaces database and govern use of the vacant television broadband spectrum (aka white space).

Founding members of the White Spaces Database Group include Comsearch, Dell, Google Inc., HP, Microsoft Corporation, Motorola Inc., and NeuStar.

Their goal is to bring the benefits of white spaces to consumers as soon as possible. The Group will establish data formats and protocols that are open and non-proprietary and will advocate that database administration be open and non-exclusive.

The 700 MHz spectrum was purchased by carriers and DTV supplier Qualcomm.  At first, carriers opposed the delay of the February 17th launch of DTV. Now, some are supporting a delay set forth in a Senate bill to delay the date until June 12. Verizon and AT&T now support the bill's delay.

"Because of these important developments, Verizon agrees that a one-time delay from Feb. 17 to June 12, as reflected in Senator Rockefeller's draft bill, is appropriate," stated Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg in a letter to leaders of the House and Senate Commerce Committees. "Any further delay would harm the nation's economy and broadband future, as I noted in my letter earlier this week."

AT&T also supports the delay as long as it does not last more than three months. AT&T does not plan to roll-out LTE on the 700 mhz spectrum, right away.

Motorola is very happy wit the FCC decision to open up the TV white space for new mobile technology.  Why because they make the kinds of technology needed to be able to use the spectrum without interfering with the broadcast bands.

"The FCC has taken a significant step to usher in a new era of technology allowing for major investments in innovative wireless broadband, education, and government/enterprise applications to spur economic development." said Greg Brown, president and co-chief executive officer of Motorola.  "Motorola looks forward to developing products that will help consumers realize the full potential of the TVWS including the opportunity to make broadband access, as well as other communication services, available to millions of underserved Americans."

NextWave Wireless announced that it has signed agreements with four parties to sell a portion of its AWS license portfolio, representing 63% of its total AWS MHz-pops, for a total of $150.1 million.

Subject to approval by the Federal Communications Commission, the agreements call for NextWave to sell 599 million MHz-pops of AWS spectrum at an average price of $0.25 per MHz-pop. The company’s cost basis in the licenses being sold is $75.2 million or $0.126 cents per MHz-pop. Pursuant to the terms of NextWave’s 7% Senior Secured Notes (“Notes”), $75 million of the proceeds from the sale will be deposited into a restricted cash collateral account and $75 million will be used to redeem a portion of the Notes. After the sale, the company will possess 348 million MHz-pops of AWS spectrum primarily in New England, Florida and California. NextWave acquired all of its AWS licenses for a total of $115.5 million, or $0.12 per MHz-pop, at an FCC auction held in 2006.

NextWave Wireless Inc. announced that it is offering for sale its extensive spectrum holdings in the United States. NextWave's U.S. spectrum footprint covers over 251 million people, or pops, in the United States and includes major markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Denver, Houston, and Detroit.

The company's holdings include licenses and lease rights for a total of 4.7 billion MHz/pops of spectrum comprised of 154 Advanced Wireless Service ("AWS") licenses in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band, 30 Wireless Communication Service ("WCS") licenses in the 2.3 GHz band, and 39 Educational Broadband Service ("EBS") and Broadband Radio Service ("BRS") licenses and spectrum leases in the 2.5 GHz band.

Summary details of NextWave's U.S. spectrum licensed portfolio are contained in the table below.

		AWS		WCS		EBS/BRS		Total
Frequency Band		1.7 GHz / 2.1 GHz		2.3 GHz		2.5 GHz
Licensed Pops (millions)		62.2		209.8		34.4		251.0
MHz-Pops (millions)		946.8		2,807.2		972.3		4,726.3
Number of Licenses		154		30		22		206
Number of Leases		0		0		17		17

According to the Google Public Policy Blog.

"Google didn't win licenses in the auction. Nonetheless, partly as a result of our bidding, consumers soon should have new freedom to get the most out of their mobile phones and other wireless devices.

Google's top priority heading into the auction was to make sure that bidding on the so-called "C Block" reached the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the important "open applications" and "open handsets" license conditions. We were also prepared to gain the nationwide C Block licenses at a price somewhat higher than the reserve price; in fact, for many days during the early course of the auction, we were the high bidder. But it was clear, then and now, that Verizon Wireless ultimately was motivated to bid higher..."

They are continuing to ask the FCC to open up the White Spaces for broadband.

Qualcomm announced that it has acquired eight licenses in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s 700 MHz spectrum auction at a total cost of $558.1 million. Qualcomm purchased licenses in the E block covering the Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco Economic Area regions. These licenses double Qualcomm’s 700 MHz spectrum holdings throughout a footprint of more than 68 million people in 28 individual markets for MediaFLO USA’s award-winning FLO TV service (21 of its top 100 markets) at a cost of $554.6 million. In addition, Qualcomm purchased three licenses on the B block at a cost of $3.5 million.

Qualcomm’s E block licenses cover five of the nation’s top seven Economic Area regions. These regions consist of large contiguous areas on the East and West Coasts, stretching from New Hampshire to Maryland and from Orange County to Northern California, respectively.

“This investment in new spectrum underscores our commitment to continue to deliver the most innovative technologies to a growing wireless industry,” said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm. “Our strategic purchase of E block licenses will enhance our efforts in the mobile TV space and further MediaFLO USA’s mission to bring world-class mobile entertainment to American consumers.”

AT&T completed successful bids for prime B Block spectrum in the FCC auction AT&T’s spectrum holdings position the company to further enhance the quality and reliability of existing wireless broadband and voice services that consumers are demanding, and set the foundation for more customer choices for new, more advanced wireless broadband technologies and 4G services.

AT&T’s 700 MHz spectrum will cover 100 percent of the top 200 markets and 87 percent of the U.S. population, enabling the company to better compete in a vibrant and dynamic marketplace.

“Results of the auction bidding demonstrate the B Block was the most attractive, most valuable spectrum available, and it was the best investment for AT&T and our customers,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T’s wireless unit.

“Our winning bids for B-Block spectrum, combined with the C-Block spectrum we acquired from Aloha Partners, significantly enhances AT&T’s spectrum portfolio, which is already one of the broadest, highest-quality and most efficient in the industry,” de la Vega said. The C-Block spectrum AT&T acquired from Aloha Partners is not subject to the same strict regulations imposed on the C Block spectrum that the FCC recently auctioned.

“With fewer costly and complex regulations, we have the certainty and flexibility needed to move faster in rolling out new mobile technology and more customer choices in devices and applications,” de la Vega said. “We will put our spectrum to work so that customers can do more with their wireless devices, the user experience is superb, and wireless connectivity can be embedded in more devices.”

Wireless broadband traffic on the AT&T network has quadrupled every year since 2004, as customers have taken advantage of faster broadband speeds and emerging wireless applications ranging from live video sharing to social networking and business applications.

Verizon Wireless said today that the spectrum it gained in the FCC’s recent 700 MHz auction is a critical piece of its overall broadband strategy to take advantage of the enormous opportunity for growth in data services in the future.

The spectrum will allow the company to capture the full potential of its announced plan to deploy a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network and Open Development Initiative and the resulting next wave of wireless innovation. The company’s comments were made in a conference call with the investment community this morning.

Verizon Wireless was the winning bidder for a nationwide spectrum footprint (excluding Alaska) in the FCC-termed C-Block group of licenses, plus 102 licenses for individual markets around the country.

In all, the company will pay $9.36 billion for these licenses, which equates to $1.03 per MHz Pop, compared with the auction average of $1.20.

The new spectrum, which will not be completely cleared for use until mid- February 2009, will increase the company’s average spectrum depth per market to 82 MHz, from 52 MHz today.

Verizon Wireless plans to launch its LTE network in the 700 MHz spectrum in the 2010 timeframe. The company said the breadth of the national C-block spectrum footprint, all in a single band and with a depth of 22 MHz, provides a speed and performance advantage that will be ideal for connecting a variety of consumer electronics, from wireless phones to medical devices to gaming consoles. In addition, the 102 individual licenses in the A and B-blocks provide additional growth capacity in key markets.

Google is asking the US government to allow the unlicensed frequencies of TV “white space” (the unused blocks between broadcast TV and analog waves) to be used for broadband access by writing a open letter.

Google would like to see the white space used to bring “ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans”. TV broadcasters previously opposed the use of white space because it could interfere with television programming.

Google has said that devices designed to take advantage of the white space spectrum could be on the market by the end of 2009.

After $19.59 billion in provisionally winning bids and 261 rounds of bidding, the 700 MHz auction is over. Four out of the five spectrum blocks achieved their reserve prices. The auction raised more more money than any FCC spectrum auction before it.

The FCC will announce the winning bidders in the next few weeks.

Today marks the end of transmission of cellular phones, OnStar and alarm systems over analog.  AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless will close down their analog networks. Very few analog customers remain because they should have switched to digital by now. At the same time, AT&T will turn off its first digital TDMA network.

Even the FCC underestimated the demand for 700 MHz. Originally expected to raise between $10 billion and $15 billion, total current bids exceed $18.9 billion. Bidding on the sought-after C block also surpasses the FCC requirements ($4.6 billion) and now has a PWB (Provisional Winning Bid) of $4.7 billion. ABI Research notes that demand for 700 MHz is so great, not even the pending recession impacts the bidding process.

This auction may be the last opportunity for new participants to gain ground in the wireless realm, which is dominated by incumbent carriers. New participants include Google, Vulcan Spectrum LLC, Tower Stream, and Cox, while traditional participants include Verizon and AT&T.

“700 MHz provides better propagation characteristics than 850 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz, and higher-frequency spectrums,” says ABI Research senior analyst Nadine Manjaro. “For instance, cable companies can utilize this spectrum by launching their own mobile broadband networks - thereby alleviating the need to rely on wireless operators. But Google draws the most speculation, since the company’s entrance into the wireless market could significantly change the wireless industry.”

Moreover, incumbent operators absolutely want to strengthen 4G deployments; and 700 MHz will improve rural and in-building coverage at a lower cost than existing frequencies.

One surprise is the nationwide D block, set aside by the FCC for public safety. Frontline Wireless - the expected front-runner - was disqualified due to its inability to pay the minimum bid. And there has been only one bid, which failed to meet the reserve bid price of $519 million. The D block price is set at $1.3 billion.

“Beginning in 2009,” concludes Manjaro, “the 700 MHz auction could alter wireless broadband services in the United States and abroad. Google’s interest in the C block influenced Verizon’s decision to open up access to its network, just as Apple’s introduction of the iPhone stirred up the cellphone market. If Google or Microsoft secures the C block spectrum, it could change the whole industry.”

The minimum bid of $4.6 billion  needed to trigger an open-access requirement of the C-block of 700Mhz spectrum was accepted Thursday, therefore it now must have open-access.

As of today the 700 MHz auction has brought in nearly $17 billion well above expectations.

The FCC released a list of  approved bidders for the auction January 24 of the 700 Mhz wireless spectrum.  This spectrum is valuable because signals can travel long distances and penetrate thick walls. Depending on the size of the area covered by the spectrum, bids are expected to start at several thousand dollars up to one hundred million dollars. The auction is seen as an opportunity for new companies to enter the wireless marketplace.  It is the analog spectrum that is being abandoned by analog television in 2009.  Proceeds from the auction are expected to raise $10 Billion for the US government:

Approved bidders include:
Google, Verizon, AT&T, Alltel, Vodaphone, EchoStar, Cablevision, Vulcan Ventures (Microsoft founders Paul Allen's company) MetroPCS, Cricket and Qualcomm.

For a complete list continue reading.