[DMCA-Activists] Reed Hundt To Senate: Clear 700-800 MHz Spectrum

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Dave Farber's Interesting People list)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [IP] Hundt To Senate: Clear 700-800 MHzSpectrum
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 13:37:33 -0400
From: Dave Farber <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden

For those who have heard me talk about this, you will not be surprised by my
strong endorsement of Reed's  position.

Dave


Delivered-To: address@hidden
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:41:21 -0700
From: Dewayne Hendricks <address@hidden>

Hundt To Senate: Clear 700-800 MHz Spectrum

By Mark Rockwell
April 28, 2004
<http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp? 
layout=newsat2direct&starting=5&pubdate=04/28/04>

  WASHINGTON -- Congress could advance broadband acceptance and use in the
United States dramatically and immediately through wireless technology
without completely re-writing telecom rules, a former FCC chairman told a
Senate panel today.

Reed Hundt, former commission chairman, told members of the Senate Committee
on Commerce, Science and Transportation that the commission could vastly
facilitate implementation and acceptance of high-speed wireless broadband by
simply writing a letter to the FCC asking that the agency re-examine the
digital television signal threshold figures that enables television stations
to hang onto spectrum in the UHF spectrum for analog broadcast. He also said
Congress should ask the FCC to look at secondary use of broadcast spectrum
in areas where it is underused and to issue an order asking that unlicensed
devices be allowed to operate in television broadcast spectrum at locations
and times when the spectrum isn't being used. The commission currently has
an inquiry into secondary use in 700 MHz.

Hundt, now on the boards of several high tech companies, including Wi-Fi
equipment provider Pronto Networks, said those moves would free more
desirable spectrum for immediate use of wireless companies looking to
provide ultra-high-speed broadband services -- operating at up to 10 Mbps --
not traditional "3G" applications. Hundt backs technology and techniques
such as Orthagonal Frequency Division Modulation, beam forming for antenna
reception and IP as wireless services that could "deliver the bits" in such
spectrum.

The former FCC chairman contends that the mandated 85 percent threshold of
digital signal penetration that allows broadcasters to keep analog UHF
spectrum has been crossed, if only the FCC would correctly count the numbers
it already has accumulated. Regulations say broadcasters can hold onto the
analog spectrum until 85 percent of the country has access to a digital
signal. Hundt said that goal has been largely accomplished and the
relatively small number of citizens who don't have the ability to access the
signal and can't afford a digital device could easily be subsidized in the
purchase of "set-top boxes."

Freeing up that spectrum in the 700 - 800 MHz band would provide cheap
widely available means to deliver high-speed wireless services, said Hundt,
in much the same way it did for broadcasters when it was granted to them
decades ago.

Hundt said if the coveted broadcast spectrum could be freed up, and the FCC
enforced its rules, wireless broadband could go a long way in bringing the
United States in line with other countries with superior broadband
penetration.


Archives at: <http://Wireless.Com/Dewayne-Net>
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>

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