Posts Tagged ‘spectrum’
AT&T snags more bandwidth for 4G: Buys Qualcomm’s FLO TV wireless spectrum for $1.9B
After wireless video service in October, Qualcomm announced today that it will be selling the service’s precious 700 megahertz wireless spectrum to AT&T for around $1.9 billion to bolster its 4G network.
The deal, which is still pending regulatory approval, is perhaps the best possible outcome for Qualcomm, which never managed to find success with FLO TV. The company learned the hard way that consumers would rather watch video on their phones rather than buy a new device that requires a monthly fee. It’s also a coup for AT&T, which needs to scrape up as much wireless spectrum as possible to strengthen its upcoming LTE 4G network.
Qualcomm’s block of spectrum covers more than 300 million people across the country, including major cities like New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. AT&T says that it intends to use the spectrum to increase the downstream speed and total capacity of its 4G network. The company will utilize carrier aggregation with the spectrum, a technology for LTE 4G networks that allows networks to use multiple frequencies to achieve high speeds, to combine its existing spectrum with Qualcomm’s.
Verizon , which serves around 110 million users. There aren’t any LTE phones available yet, but the company has a few 4G USB modems available. Verizon boasts that it has the largest contiguous swath of 700 MHz wireless spectrum in the continental US, meaning its network is already expansive without patching in multiple spectrum blocks. It’s not yet clear how AT&T’s LTE network will compete. AT&T is expected to launch its 4G LTE network some time in 2011.
AT&T says it will begin deploying the new spectrum once its handsets and networking equipment are ready. Both Qualcomm and AT&T expect the sale to close in the second half of 2011.
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FCC votes to open up empty broadcast TV spectrum for “Super-WiFi”
The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously today to open up empty broadcast TV spectrum — so-called “white spaces” which exist between TV channels — for a next-generation mobile broadband technology it’s calling “Super-WiFi.”
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said that white space networks will “open a new platform for American innovation“ and lead to billions of dollars in industry investment.
Companies like Google, Microsoft, Dell, and HP have been planning on ways to use the spectrum for some time. White spaces are ideal for mobile broadband because they can carry large amounts of data, go through walls easily, and offer miles worth of range. Google in a blog post and said that it was pleased the agency “rejected calls to enact burdensome and unnecessary constraints that would have made it more difficult to deploy useful technologies on these airwaves.”
As part of the decision, the FCC will create a national database of broadcast TV channels and major wireless microphone users (theaters, churches). White space networks and devices will have the ability to find their own location and consult the database to avoid conflicts. The agency originally voted to open up white spaces for mobile broadband two years ago, but TV broadcasters and wireless microphone manufacturers and users raised concerns about potential interference. The database announced today should help avoid those issues.
While the use of white spaces may sound like mobile internet heaven, the FCC and big tech companies may be overstating the spectrum’s value, according to Martin Suter, VP of business development at BelAir Networks. In , Suter pointed to on why the promises behind white space networks may be overblown — particularly when it comes to estimated range and bandwidth figures.
But even if Suter is correct, white space networks will be helpful to rural areas of America where it’s difficult to implement cable, DSL, or fiber broadband access.
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To Explain the Broadcast Spectrum, FCC Unveils Cool Interactive Tools
The agency may also open up parts of the spectrum for private experimentation
The tools on the FCC's provide access to information about the current spectrum allocations by frequency, type of use, and user. Study enabled by this dashboard can help us to better understand how portions of the spectrum are used and in what areas experimentation and innovation are possible.
The Spectrum Band Browser provides a color-coded breakdown of the current spectrum allocation scheme. Moving the mouse over a portion of the spectrum gives key details on the type of use.
If you find you like this spectrum chart so much that you would like to have a copy of your very own, the full chart is available for download . Regrettably, the Government Printing Office no longer carries this poster, so you will have to make your own printing arrangements if you'd like to have this on your wall, as I do.
The Spectrum Dashboard also provides two tools for researching license holders and the portions of the spectrum to which they have been given access. Pictured above is a screen shot of the Map tool, which reveals license holders by county. Searching by both the legally registered and common brand name of the license holder is also supported.
The spectrum availability map by county provides a visualization of the amount of the licensed bands not currently allocated to license holders. For most of us at the present time, it is somewhere right around none.
If you find yourself interested in the details of the frequency bands, don't miss the "Search by FCC License Categories" tool. This is a search interface for detailed information about each of the allocated bands in the radio spectrum.
Radio-wave tinkerers may find something else to like. According to a recent , "The plan will advise that some of the spectrum become unlicensed, so it can serve as a test bed for new technologies."
While there are already parts of the spectrum available for public usage, both through the portions allocated for amateur radio and the portions allocated for unlicensed operation, the FCC broadband plan acknowledges the benefits and innovations that have resulted from federal support of research and development and specifically addresses the issue of expanding the parts of the spectrum that are made available for research and experimentation. In of the plan, it states "Allowing research organizations such as universities greater flexibility to temporarily use fallow spectrum can promote more efficient and innovative communications systems."