WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission has proposed rules allowing unlicensed services to operate in the unused TV band.
“What we have always been committed to is that there has to be as many competitive broadband platforms as possible. I have been a broken record on this for seven years because I want competitive choice, and I want it in lots of differentiated ways. You want as many tools in the toolbox to reach all of our population. Rural areas have their own unique problems. Inner cities are a different kind of unique problem. The more technologies that are capable of delivering broadband, the more likely we are to achieve even more than we did with phone deployment of the last 100 years,” FCC Chairman Michael Powell told reporters following Thursday’s meeting.
Because TV channels were allocated to prevent interference-giving space between them in each market and at least 150 miles before reuse-the unused channels vary across the country. The proposed rules require smart radios to query first to see if a channel is available in a particular area before operating. If a channel is available, then the device could use that spectrum.
The FCC envisions two types of unlicensed operations occurring in the TV band. One would be approved devices to be commercially sold. It is unclear whether these devices could request use on more than one channel at a time. The other would be fixed Wi-Fi transmitters that presumably would be professionally installed to determine whether transmissions would cause interference to TV operations before transmissions in the TV band would begin.
The Media Access Project, often a critic of the FCC because of the commission’s stance on media ownership, praised the decision.
“This action will bring wireless broadband to all Americans. From poor inner-city neighborhoods to rural areas where cable and digital subscriber lines don’t find it profitable to deploy, this empowers citizens to construct the networks they need, available when they want them,” said Harold Feld, Media Access Project associate director.
The New America Foundation, which often calls for more spectrum for unlicensed operations, said the propagation characteristics of the TV band make it very desirable.
“At these wavelengths, signals travel easily through solid objects and require far less power to reach their intended receivers. This lets providers build cheap equipment that costs much less to run and goes where you want it to,” said Jim Snider, New America senior research fellow.
