FCC to Open Airwaves to New Wireless Network : Telecommunications: Agency will OK a compromise to speed the introduction of ‘personal communications services.’
Resolving a fractious debate, the Federal Communications Commission plans to approve a measure today aimed at speeding the introduction of always-in-touch-communications by slashing the cost of an advanced new wireless network.
The plan will also reduce the complexity of “personal communications services” equipment, allowing engineers to design slightly smaller and cheaper portable devices for users to make phone calls and send and receive faxes and other information while on the run.
At issue was how to open up portions of the radio spectrum, which carries wireless communications of all kinds, for a new breed of PCS offering the promise of go-anywhere connections.
The problem was that the spectrum is already so crowded that room for PCS could only be found in three different small sections of the radio band. That would have necessitated complicated PCS devices capable of addressing all three portions of the spectrum.
But on Wednesday, the FCC adopted a compromise brokered by Motorola Inc., a major wireless phone equipment maker with sizable satellite interests as well. Motorola persuaded the satellite industry to relinquish some space in the spectrum and let the government consolidate PCS into a seamless block.
The compromise offers the added advantage of displacing fewer pre-existing users of the spectrum, because the segments being surrendered by the satellite industry are relatively unpopulated. The satellite industry gave in at least partly because the spectrum it had been reserving was no longer compatible with the spectrum set aside by other countries for future satellite use.
The new allocation plan should free up more cash for PCS companies to wager in the federal government’s eagerly anticipated fall auctions of airwaves, or radio spectrum, for broad band PCS service. Those auctions for government licenses and radio spectrum to offer PCS are being viewed as a crucial revenue source in the Clinton Administration’s increasingly pointed search for more money to fund health care reform and other initiatives.
“This relatively minor change in technology and market strategy will result in dramatic increases in competition and benefit to consumers in terms of more rapid deployment of PCS and lower service costs,” said Robert Pepper, who heads up PCS policy for the FCC.
Lyndon Daniels, president of Pacific Bell’s PCS subsidiary, added: “I think the plan the FCC is considering has a number of advantages in that . . . it not only costs less money to relocate other users but it will take less time” to complete the transition to PCS.
That’s because instead of being faced with paying to relocate scores of cellular, railroad and utility concerns operating on the same radio spectrum that had been proposed for PCS, PCS providers will only have to relocate a handful of incumbent users to unoccupied parts of the spectrum.
The compromise was reached after Motorola Inc., a major wireless phone equipment manufacturer that also has sizable satellite interests, convinced the satellite industry to relinquish some spectrum to PCS--previously split into three separate spectrum bands.
Under the new plan, PCS will occupy the spectrum from 1.85 gigahertz to 1.97 gigahertz. A hertz is a unit of frequency in a radio spectrum that ranges from cosmic waves to TV and radio waves. Phone companies, satellite operators and others use these airwaves to transmit voice, video and other information. But each service ties up slices of radio spectrum. The FM radio band, for example, uses about 20 megahertz; cellular phones use another 50. A gigahertz is 1 billion hertz.
Radio spectrum has become an increasingly valuable commodity amid the stunning success of the cellular industry, which already has 16 million subscribers and is gaining 1,000 new customers a day. Telephone and computer engineers, among others, are rushing to develop more advanced wireless services that will allow users to send and receive information from devices as portable and unobtrusive as a wristwatch.
Also on the PCS front, the FCC put off a decision about whether to grant special preference to minorities, women and small businesses seeking PCS licenses, which are scheduled to be awarded to the highest bidder.
