Verizon's plans
From CES, via Engadget:
“We're going to turn up the bandwidth on the whole television experience.”
Interference
As broadcast flag groupies know, broadcasters have been given extra spectrum so that they can transmit both analog and digital signals as the digital transition continues. When that transition is over — by February 17, 2009 (after the Super Bowl) — the broadcasters will have to give up their extra spectrum and broadcast digitally.
We already have rules that say that TV stations on the same or adjacent channels have to avoid interference. Because of these rules, there are ”white spaces” not being used by TV — and after the digital transition, there will be even more white spaces. In general, broadcast spectrum is used very inefficiently.
After years of work and an extensive 2002 report by the Spectrum Policy Task Force, back in 2004 the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking about white spaces, saying that it wanted to allow unlicensed use of this spectrum. The Commission found that the benefits of new low-power unlicensed devices being operated in this spectrum outweighed the interference risks these uses might create, and explicitly (if tentatively) decided not to require that the devices be licensed. Making this spectrum available for unlicensed uses opens up great opportunities for (among other things) community mesh networks that can provide low-cost high-speed connectivity.
In the words of the Task Force:
Historically, due in large part to technological limitations in radio performance, the Commission’s spectrum policies have parceled – or assigned – spectrum according to particular operational frequencies and geographic areas of operations. Smart technologies, such as software-defined radios, potentially allow operators to take advantage of the time dimension of the radio spectrum. That is, because their operations are so agile and can be changed nearly instantaneously, they can operate for short periods of time in unused spectrum. The Commission’s current policies do not take into account the time dimension of spectrum use. In addition, the Commission’s current policies do not allow new technologies to take advantage of geographic white space. In order to be responsive to these increased technological capabilities, the Commission’s spectrum policies can and should remain technology agnostic, but they should not be technology antagonistic. As a result, the Commission should strive, wherever possible, to eliminate regulatory barriers to increased spectrum access.
In October 2006, the Commission suddenly veered in a different direction. It issued a First Report and Order saying that it had decided to consider yet again whether uses of white spaces should be licensed or unlicensed, that it wasn't sure about mobile devices being used in part of this spectrum, and that it didn't think that anyone should be allowed to market or sell any new devices for use in this spectrum until after the digital transition was over. (Just think for a moment about what a drag on innovation that schedule is.)
This is another deeply troubling, rigidly conservative, and incumbent-friendly move on the part of the Commission. In the name of protecting over-the-air broadcast television (something that fewer and fewer Americans actually receive), the FCC is apparently planning to sharply limit the success of new innovative low-power wireless transmission projects and many other as-yet-unknown developments. Devices are getting much smarter, but the Commission seems determined to assume that they are both dumb and destructive. The spectrum involved is “beachfront property” — highly desirable. Eerily broadcast-flag reminiscent: there's a group backed by a bunch of interested incumbent companies (Motorola, Thomson, Samsung, Philips, Nextwave, France Telecom, and others) that is developing a standard (see last slide) for protection of incumbent licensed devices from harmful interference.
Comments are due by the end of the month, and the Commission is receiving many ex parte visits. The New American Foundation and CUWin have already filed a petition pointing out how arbitrary the Commission's action is. The Commission intends to wrap up this proceeding by the end of 2007.