FCC to Propose Airwave Set-Aside for Communities
Federal regulators plan today to embrace an idea long promoted by grass-roots computer enthusiasts: Set aside a chunk of the airwaves so that individuals, libraries and schools can use radio circuits free of charge to link their computers to the Internet, bypassing the telephone system.
The idea is to foster the creation of community computer networks. People with properly equipped computers could trade e-mail or tap into databases over the air without paying a phone company for the privilege.
The Federal Communications Commission today will propose a rule to set aside certain radio frequencies for this purpose, sources at the agency said. As worded, the rule reflects an agreement in principle among regulators and feuding wings of the computer and communications industry to take that step.
Making the frequencies available at no charge marks a dramatic switch for the FCC, which recently has been treating such frequencies as a cash cow. It has raised more than $20 billion by auctioning off licenses for commercial wireless uses.
But commission Chairman Reed Hundt is also keen to make good on President Clinton’s promise of connecting every school, clinic and library in the nation to the Internet by the end of the decade, and sees radio as important in helping them overcome problems of cost and disruption.
Schools, which often lack phone lines to individual classrooms, would avoid the monthly charges of commercial lines. They could also avoid drilling through concrete walls and removing asbestos to install the lines.
The availability of the frequencies might also encourage companies to build inexpensive personal communications devices that would work only inside neighborhood boundaries. People would pay no monthly fees to send brief messages back and forth, in the same way that CB radio users pay nothing for use of the airwaves.
Details of the plan remain to be worked out.
Last summer, Apple Computer Inc. proposed that the government set aside a portion of the airwaves for such networking. At the same time, a coalition of about half a dozen telecommunications equipment companies called the WINForum, which includes AT&T; Corp., Motorola Inc. and Northern Telecom Inc., made an alternative proposal.
Instead of community networks, the WINForum coalition was eager to see the government put aside airwaves for very high-bandwidth networking--but just within buildings.
Since last summer, Apple and WINForum representatives have grown closer: Apple now advocates setting aside a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for high-speed wireless networking indoors.
And the phone equipment companies are beginning to view community networks as less of a threat because they would involve only small areas.
Where the two groups differ is how much of the airwaves should be set aside for which purposes. That’s what the FCC has promised to resolve with its proposed rule.
“We’ll propose something specific. It gives them something to shoot at,” said one FCC official who requested anonymity. “We’re giving each side most of what they wanted, but not everything.”
