Carriers Exaggerate Spectrum Needs, Public Interest Groups Charge
The Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) slammed wireless carrier arguments that they need an additional 800 MHz of spectrum to address industry needs. The charge came in reply comments on the FCC’s wireless innovation inquiry. The public interest groups said carriers have a role to play, but the public is better served in many cases by free service using unlicensed spectrum. Carriers led by CTIA fired back, saying licensed services alone will guarantee network build out and innovation. “The filings definitely show two different world views,” said a wireless industry source. “The FCC under [Julius] Genachowski is going to have to walk a fine line if it wants to accommodate both.”
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“CTIA urged the Commission to commit to identifying and allocating a significant amount of exclusively-licensed spectrum -- with a goal of at least an additional 800 MHz -- for commercial wireless services,” PISC said. “However, we believe that it is impractical, inefficient and ultimately anti-consumer to attempt to meet the growing demand for mobile data consumption primarily through traditional reallocations of exclusively-licensed spectrum by auction.”
There’s no question carriers will need more licensed spectrum, PISC said. But “as high-capacity wireline connections and a consumer’s ability to purchase hybrid mobile devices becomes more prevalent, it is neither cost effective nor pro-consumer to encourage a model whereby most mobile data would be transported over expensive licensed airwaves, and through relatively distant carrier-provisioned infrastructure, when most communication can flow short distances over unlicensed airwaves and consumer-provisioned backhaul,” PISC said. “Wise policy choices will be necessary to facilitate -- and not impede -- a market evolution toward these more spectrum-efficient and cost-effective ‘hybrid’ or ‘heterogeneous’ wireless broadband networks.” Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Free Press, Media Access Project, Public Knowledge, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and New America Foundation signed the filing.
CTIA replied that an “exclusive-use, flexible rights licensing regime provides the certainty to invest in infrastructure necessary for more extensive buildout, greater capabilities, and innovative new services, devices and applications. No facts or data exist to warrant disturbing this approach.” To ensure limited spectrum resources are used effectively and efficiently, “there is substantial agreement in the record that the Commission should continue to employ the exclusive-use, flexible rights licensing model that has attracted billions of dollars in investment in infrastructure necessary to create large-scale mobile networks,” CTIA said. “While unlicensed spectrum will continue to have a complementary role to the mobile broadband network, there must be a Government focus on making licensed spectrum available.”
“CTIA’s Reply Comments acknowledge that unlicensed spectrum can be an important part of meeting the public’s demand for wireless services, especially over short distances,” the association said in response to the PISC filing Friday. “However, even with the use of WiFi and other unlicensed spectrum, CMRS carriers will require the additional spectrum forecast by the ITU to accommodate the growing demand for mobile data. Spectrum, whether licensed or unlicensed, is the critical first link in a wireless broadband network, but it is not the entire network. By not looking at any costs beyond the air interface, the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition ignores the investment in base stations and backhaul needed to connect users to the Internet and the efficiencies CMRS carriers provide users through shared base stations and backhaul that are not available to unlicensed users who must procure and provision their own wireless routers and broadband access.”
Verizon Wireless also argued that the current model is working and carriers are largely responsible for wireless innovation. “Much of this innovation has been driven by wireless licensees such as Verizon Wireless, who have invested tens of billions of dollars to construct and repeatedly upgrade their networks,” the carrier said. “These advanced networks have enabled the proliferation and convergence of new devices, applications, and content. Contrary to some that see a binary world of ‘dumb pipes’ on the one hand and ’smart applications’ on the other, the success of wireless has been due to the integration of increasingly powerful networks and ever-more intelligent devices and applications.”
“Although some commenters call for the allocation of additional unlicensed spectrum or the full implementation of unlicensed devices operating in the TV White Space those commenters did not submit any data whatsoever to justify the need for more unlicensed spectrum,” Qualcomm said. “The Commission should act on the basis of facts, not speculation. The facts are that there is no business case for the use of unlicensed spectrum to cover wide areas and the existing unlicensed allocations are sufficient for local area service.”