Dustin Goodwin Broadband Policy NYCwireless
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Press release from New America 9/9/2003:
Coalition Urges FCC to Open More Spectrum for Unlicensed Public Access
On Monday a coalition of public interest groups and wireless community networks filed formal Comments to the FCC urging the Commission to open underused spectrum for unlicensed citizen access -- an action that would provide rural and underserved communities with more affordable access to wireless broadband Internet connections. The coalition responded to FCC-proposed changes to the large band originally allocated to nonprofit institutions for Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) and to private firms for commercial video services (MMDS). Although ITFS licensees originally were awarded license rights in exchange for providing educational services, the band has been vastly underused and the FCC has allowed licensees to lease out most of the spectrum to private firms. The FCC-proposed rule changes would reduce the spectrum available for education and encourage educational licensees to sell their licenses to private companies, effectively ending the educational obligations associated with the band.
In order to preserve and expand the noncommercial benefits of the ITFS band, the coalition urged the Commission to reallocate one half of the entire ITFS/MDS band (90 MHz) for unlicensed public access on a primary basis. This portion of the band would be located at 2.5 GHz, directly adjacent to the 2.4 GHz band currently used by WiFi services. Current educational applications that need to relocate would be reimbursed by spectrum revenue or by fees manufacturers would collect on WiFi-type equipment. Alternatively, the coalition recommends that a band equivalent to the current ITFS allocation (120 MHz) be preserved for educational uses on a primary basis, but opened for unlicensed sharing to maximize unlicensed citizen access. The coalition also opposed allowing licensees to sell spectrum they never paid for, urging instead that any auctions return revenue to the public.
The full Comments are located at http://www.newamerica.net/Download_Docs/pdfs/Pub_File_1350_1.pdf. Other groups signing the comments include Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, the New America Foundation, Media Access Project, the Benton Foundation, Center for Digital Democracy, and Public Knowledge. Also joining the coalition are wireless community access networks NYCwireless.org, Seattlewireless.net, and the Bay Area Wireless User Group (BAWUG.org) and wireless ISPs Roadstar Internet Services, of Northern Virginia, and Emenity, Inc., of New York City.
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Summary of recommendations found in the comments:
• The proposed re-banding and grant of new flexibility rights to ITFS and MDS licenses should include a reallocation of approximately half the total band (90 MHz) for unlicensed public access on a primary basis; this can be done while protecting licensee’s reasonable expectations to the services and transmission capacity under their license, and any relocation to the upper portion of the band can be funded by makers of unlicensed equipment and/or from auction proceeds by asking Congress to extend the pending Spectrum Relocation Trust for relocating federal users.
• Alternatively, a band equivalent to the current ITFS allocation (120 MHz) should be preserved for education on a primary basis, but opened to maximize unlicensed citizen access as an underlay, subject to non-interference with existing ITFS applications; this underlay should include both unlicensed access to the unassigned “white space” on a primary basis, but also opportunistic access of unlicensed communication using unused or underutilized capacity within licensed geographic service areas across the entire ITFS/MDS band.
• If the Commission decides to reallocate or reassign license rights on the band, any auction mechanism must comply with the statutory goals and restrictions of the Communications Act, which the proposed “two-sided” giveaway auction decidedly does not, as it diverts federal revenue from the Treasury to private parties; a genuine auction where potential licensees bid in terms of the annual user fee would best optimize the various policy goals of the Act.
• The ITFS allocation should be maintained as noncommercial public service spectrum; the Commission should retain the ITFS eligibility requirements and should require increased noncommercial public service requirements in return for the free use of spectrum and increased flexibility to provide valuable data networking services.
• If the Commission determines that unlicensed public access to the band – on an underlay or primary basis – is feasible and desirable, it should refrain from imposing a private intermediary between citizens and license exempt spectrum; a retreat from the open access Part 15 model that is characteristic of the WiFi band (2.4GHz), as suggested by the NPRM, would undermine First Amendment values, as well as the goals of innovation and competition favored by the Communications Act.
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