The “highly, highly politicized” process of adding spectrum will deal with only 1 percent of the growth in mobile-data traffic in the coming years, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said. Speaking at San Jose State University in California last week, he said his company is pursuing technology solutions including the use of TDD for supplemental downlinks in unpaired spectrum like that Qualcomm sold to AT&T. Authorized shared access, allowing licensed spectrum use on a secondary basis, is being pursued mainly in Europe, Jacobs said. And use must be made of “higher and higher frequency bands where there might be larger and larger chunks of spectrum” available, he said. The TV white spaces aren’t suited to long-distance data services because they're unlicensed, so interference sources can pop up between ends of a communication, Jacobs said. Dissatisfaction with licensed services drives demand for unlicensed ones, but the right solution is fixing the shortcomings, he said.
Correction: A comment on TV white spaces (CD May 4 p1) was incorrectly attributed to FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. Matt Wood of Free Press said, “NAB seems to have recognized that opening up unused TV channels for innovative broadband uses, without disturbing existing broadcast operations, is the best result for the public. It’s a far better outcome than broadcasters losing even more channels in an auction to benefit Verizon and AT&T."
The idea circulating in some news articles that the U.N. or ITU is “trying to take over the Internet … is simply ridiculous,” Hamadoun Toure, ITU secretary-general, told the Canadian Wireless Telecommunication Association forum May 1, according to his prepared remarks. The last set of changes to the regulations, in 1988, “paved the way for market liberalization and the spectacular growth” in telecom, “including the ‘mobile miracle’ and the global spread of the Internet,” Toure said. ITU’s membership did a “great job” of preparing for future needs in 1988, and “we are confident that they will do so again” at the treaty conference to revise the International Telecommunication Regulations later this year in the United Arab Emirates, he said. “In the broadest terms, this means governments and industry will come together in Dubai to lay the foundations for a broadband-enabled future, for everyone,” Toure said. “I expect a light-touch regulatory approach to emerge,” he said. This means establishing “broad, forward-looking principles that support a transparent, efficient framework for investment,” he said. “We need to reach consensus on balanced and predictable rules to ensure fair competition and to stimulate innovation and the spread of information and communication technologies,” Toure said. The GSMA estimated that $800 billion would be needed in mobile infrastructure investment by 2015 to handle the rapidly-growing demands of mobile broadband users, Toure said: “Unfortunately, many national policy and regulatory regimes were not designed with the current shift from voice to data-centric networks and services in mind. And, the current ITRs are not properly equipped to deal with this challenge either, which raises the question of how all this new infrastructure will be paid for?”
The FCC turns its attention back to wireless at its May 24 meeting. Chairman Julius Genachowski teed up three wireless items for a vote at the meeting. The agency released the tentative agenda late Thursday. The commission will vote on a report and order and further rulemaking notice on medical body area networks. Also on tap, the agency said, is a notice of inquiry examining the role of what it calls “deployable aerial communications architecture” including “drones” in emergency responses, and an order providing economic area-based 800 MHz licensees “with the flexibility to better utilize spectrum to transition networks from legacy 2G technologies to advanced wireless technologies."
Verizon Wireless picked TeleCommunication Systems to help it provide text-to-911 services, the carrier said Thursday. The initiative will let customers send texts to 911 call centers. “Verizon is at the forefront of 911 public-safety innovations, and today’s announcement is another step in making SMS-to-911 service available to those who cannot make a voice call to 911,” said Marjorie Hsu, Verizon Wireless vice president of technology. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called Verizon Wireless President Dan Meade on Thursday afternoon to congratulate the carrier on its plan to become the first U.S. wireless carrier to offer nationwide text-to-911 services, an agency spokeswoman said by email. “The Chairman commended the company for offering consumers another way to reach 911 that is consistent with how millions of consumers already use mobile devices in their daily lives."
Verizon shareholders defeated a net neutrality proposal, which they voted on with other measures at the telco’s annual meeting. A similar net neutrality proposal was recently defeated at AT&T’s shareholder meeting.
Cablevision’s Q1 sales were about the same as a year earlier at $1.66 billion, the company said. The company added about 7,000 basic video customers during the quarter. It also added 41,800 broadband and 42,400 phone customers. Though Cablevision’s subscriber results beat analyst estimates, its financial results disappointed, Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett wrote investors. “Falling margins and stagnant revenues are a recipe for disaster.” With a buyout either by another cable operator or Cablevision’s own management unlikely, the company’s shares don’t make an attractive investment, he said. “What you see is what you get … and what you see, in our view, is not a pretty picture.” Cablevision shares fell 7.9 percent Thursday.
Smart TV app publisher Flingo said it raised about $1 million from HDNet Chairman Mark Cuban and Lauder Partners Managing Director Gary Lauder. The funding brings to about $8 million the amount the company has raised in Series A financing, it said. “Working with Mark Cuban and Gary Lauder … and their colleagues in the industry helps shape our product roadmap and engagement model with media companies and operators,” said Flingo CEO Ashwin Navin. “Their confidence in our company and shared belief in our vision is a tremendous validation of our role in the TV ecosystem."
The FCC International Bureau accepted an application from Fox affiliate KRBK-TV Osage Beach, Mo., to license a C-band transmit/receive earth station. The earth station will be used to “provide satellite distribution of video content and programming to regional downlinks within the U.S.,” the application said.
It’s time for industry and government stakeholders to “roll up our sleeves, lock the engineers from both sides in a room and figure out a path forward” on spectrum reallocation, said T-Mobile Vice President-Federal Legislative Affairs Tony Russo in a blog post Wednesday (http://xrl.us/bm544v). Additional bandwidth is “essential to continue offering cutting edge mobile broadband services to consumers and regaining the competitiveness of the wireless industry,” he said. Russo endorsed the Efficient Use of Government Spectrum Act (HR-4817), which he said can accommodate the needs of “current government users while carving a path forward to reallocate the spectrum for commercial wireless services.” Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced HR-4817 last week to require the FCC to pair for commercial auction the 1755-1780 MHz band with the 2155-2180 MHz band (CD April 27 p3). Stearns said the legislation would bring more spectrum to the commercial market and raise $12 billion for the U.S. Treasury while offering the Defense Department protections for reallocation. Russo acknowledged that the full clearing of the 1755-1780 MHz band may not be possible in a short timeframe and said the legislation offers a transition plan whereby all users can share the spectrum. “Only through cooperative engagement will we get to a solution that works for both current and future licensees within the three-year period remaining under separate legislation that authorized the auction of the 2155-2180 MHz band,” he said. Both the 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz band should “obviously” be sold together to provide “certainty to auction participants about what they are buying,” Russo said.