Squaring Off Over Spectrum
By Stephen Barlas
from the May 21, 2001 issue of Broadband Week
WASHINGTON -- As the Federal Communications Commission continues grappling with allocation of spectrum for next-generation mobile wireless services, new ideas literally are dropping out of the blue.
One of the latest: a proposal by satellite broadband provider New ICO Global Communications to use its own spectrum in the 1990-2025 and 2165-2200 MHz bands for ancillary third generation terrestrial wireless base stations to complement its celestial network.
The proposal by New ICO--an enterprise that wireless pioneer Craig McCaw has cobbled together from the wreckage of several struggling orbital enterprises--is facing stiff opposition from traditional wireless operators, reflecting the tortuous path that in general has characterized mobile broadband wireless spectrum allocation in the United States.
The FCC in trying to walk that path has found itself handcuffed frequently by political problems associated with the bands endorsed by the 2000 World Radio Communications Conference (WRC-2000) for 3G mobile wireless.
WRC-2000 has specified that next generation mobile wireless services should occupy spectrum bands at 806-960 MHz, 1710-1855 MHz and 2500-2690 MHz.
So New ICO's proposal has been met with fierce, opposition lobbying by incumbent wireless carriers that don't believe it should get clearance to use its spectrum for purposes other than for what it originally was allocated.
Donald Brittingham, director of spectrum policy for Verizon Wireless, delivered that message in an April 24 meeting with Peter Tenhula, the senior legal advisor to FCC Chairman Michael Powell.
Brian O'Connor, vice president of legislative and regulatory affairs at VoiceStream Wireless, says his company also opposes allowing the erstwhile satellite spectrum to be used for terrestrial 3G.
Verizon and VoiceStream have been at loggerheads otherwise. Verizon has thrown its shoulder behind the 2500-2690 band that is vacant everywhere except in the United States, where it is used by multipoint distribution service (MDS) and Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) licensees.
But in a report issued March 30, the FCC indicated there were insurmountable technical and economic problems involved in auctioning off part of that band, a view that was applauded by the nation's dominant multichannel MDS license holders, Sprint and WorldCom, who target the spectrum for broadband fixed wireless access. The spectrum also is used by a number of institutional license holders, such as universities and the Catholic Church, for one-way video.
"Verizon is out in left field and not even facing the pitcher's mound," says Todd Gray, Washington counsel for the National ITFS Association.
Other wireless providers like VoiceStream and Cingular Wireless want some of the MDS/ITFS spectrum. But their appeals have been more timid. Explains one industry executive, "No one wants to look like big, fat guys going up against Catholic school girls."
VoiceStream and a wide swath of wireless trade associations have been much more vocal on behalf of the 1710-1855 band, which is occupied by Defense Department communications services.
VoiceStream uses GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phone technology, which outside the United States occupies the 1710-1855 band. The former PacBell Wireless and BellSouth Mobility DCS territories of Cingular also are GSM, and AT&T Wireless is planning to build a GSM overlay to its time division multiple access networks for its eventual migration to 3G.
But on March 30, the Pentagon issued a report concluding that sharing the 1755-1850 MHz band between DOD and 3G services would be "infeasible." Instead, the Defense Department suggested that before the military moves its communication channels lock, stock and barrel, the case should be made that 3G services cannot be accommodated "within non-government spectrum already allocated or readily available for wireless operations."
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