Brownsville, Tex., signed a $4 million contract with IBM to build a citywide wireless Internet network used by city workers and offered to public users. The network, at first based on Wi-Fi, is expected to evolve to WiMAX as equipment for mobile access becomes available. “We will use a multitude of technologies,” IBM official Kevin Mazzatta told us: “The discussion is about making sure we have the right technology. It is not always licensed or unlicensed. In this case we have a combination.” Mazzatta said Brownsville is the first city identified as using IBM’s new Digital Communities Service Product, and other announcements are coming. “We're growing at a record pace, and the best way for Brownsville to provide city services is by embracing new technology,” City Mgr. Charlie Cabler said: “We'll see a wide range of improvements with this modernization effort, ranging from local police getting wireless access to criminal databases, providing more knowledge in the field, to our citizens being able to more quickly apply for building permits and inspections online instead of through the mail or at a city office.”
Howard Buskirk
Howard Buskirk, Executive Senior Editor, joined Warren Communications News in 2004, after covering Capitol Hill for Telecommunications Reports. He has covered Washington since 1993 and was formerly executive editor at Energy Business Watch, editor at Gas Daily and managing editor at Natural Gas Week. Previous to that, he was a staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Greenville News. Follow Buskirk on Twitter: @hbuskirk
Sprint Nextel doesn’t plan to bid on spectrum in the 700 MHz auction later this year or early 2008, top executives said Wed. in a call on Q4 and year-end financial results. At year-end Sprint had $2 billion cash that it will use to buy back stock and for other purposes, not as spectrum bait. “At this time we have no interest in participation in that,” CEO Gary Forsee said: “We've got the best spectrum position of any of the carrier competitors.”
Carriers have been “disingenuous” in contending that public safety will already have plenty of good spectrum at 700 after the DTV transition, and won’t don’t need more, said David Boyd, dir.-command, control & interoperability at DHS. “They haven’t got a clue what emergency operations are like or what is required,” Boyd said during an FCBA lunch Wed.
The FCC approved a waiver request by Crown Castle letting the company transmit video and audio to cellphones using its Modeo service at up to 20 times previously authorized power levels. The order is especially important in suggesting that the FCC may also allow higher power levels for broadband PCS and AWS transmissions, sources said. CTIA asked for high power levels in the FCC’s biennial review.
Cyren Call needs more than 12 MHz of spectrum to set up a robust wireless broadband public safety network, it told the FCC. Cyren, which wants a 30 MHz network, said 12 MHz, to be carved out of 24 MHz scheduled for public safety after the DTV transition, simply isn’t enough. No plan using so little spectrum makes investment sense, it said. A Dec. FCC NPRM asked how the agency should change the rules for the 24 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum public safety gets after transition (CD Dec 21 p7).
FCC Chmn. Martin named Derek Poarch, U. of N.C. police chief, the first permanent head of the Public Safety Bureau. Since it opened in Sept., the Bureau has been run by Ken Moran, an FCC staffer with no law enforcement experience, prompting safety officials to press for a chief from their world. Poarch, chief of police at Martin’s undergraduate alma mater, heads a department of 300 full and part-time employees. Several sources said Fri. they were surprised Martin hadn’t picked a chief with a higher profile. But Harlin McEwen, a former police chief who represents law enforcement groups on spectrum issues, endorsed Martin’s choice. “It shows the chairman’s commitment to the public safety community to address our critical needs,” he said.
FCC designated entity (DE)rules guarantee minority investors will avoid spectrum auctions, said Mosaic Partners, a new minority investors group. A filing by the group, which last week began meeting with agency officials, came as the FCC contemplates rules for the 700 MHZ auction, which could begin as early as summer.
Chmn. Martin indicated Fri. he’s considering proposing Carterfone-style rules for wireless networks, indicating to reporters after the FCC meeting in Harrisburg, Pa. that he hasn’t reached any conclusions. The FCC must strike an “appropriate balance” between innovation by equipment makers and investment by carriers in their networks, Martin said. He drew parallels to cable telephony, where the FCC is also considering imposing Carterfone requirements: “We're now in the process of making sure we can do that on the cable side… With wireless it depends to some degree on competition among the wireless networks.”
Some wireless carriers may have tough rules to protect their systems, but that doesn’t mean the FCC should mandate net neutrality, at least now, a venture capitalist and the CEO of a high-tech wireless startup told an FCBA wireless lunch Thurs. Neither endorsed Skype’s call for a Carterfone rule for wireless (CD Feb 22 p6).
Skype asked the FCC to impose Carterfone requirements on wireless carriers, giving customers the right to attach any device of their choice to a wireless network. Skype asked the FCC for a rulemaking to evaluate wireless carriers’ practices in light of the Carterfone ruling.