http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=service_home&id=lower700
http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auction_summary&id=N2
The Lower 700 MHz Band is comprised of spectrum ranging from 698 MHz to
746 MHz. The spectrum is divided into five blocks.
(http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/data/bandplans/700lower.pdf)
FCC 03-236
7/26/2002
PUBLIC NOTICE (DA 02-1829)
Auction of Licenses for 747-762 and 777-792 MHz Bands (Auction No. 31)
is Rescheduled
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FCC Auction Of Low-Range Spectrum Could Open Broadband Doors
Coalitions are lobbying to limit what spectrum carriers' can buy in aid
of new business models
By Elena Malykhina
InformationWeek
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199000970
April 14, 2007 12:00 AM (From the April 16, 2007 issue)
Will U.S. consumers get a "third pipe" for broadband--a wireless option
that can go toe-to-toe with cable and DSL? Will public safety workers
get the wireless network that's gotten lip service since Sept. 11, 2001?
Those are the stakes when the Federal Communications Commission in the
coming weeks sets rules for this year's auction of the 700-MHz spectrum
for wireless broadband. Congress is forcing TV broadcasters to go
digital by 2009, freeing the precious low-range spectrum, which covers
large distances, penetrates walls, and reaches into basements.
Historically, big telecom carriers snatch up such spectrum. But several
coalitions are lobbying to restrict how carriers can buy spectrum,
claiming that will give new business models a chance.
Save Our Spectrum, formed by consumer advocacy groups, is lobbying the
FCC for rules favoring the creation of a high-speed Internet service to
compete with cable and DSL--auctioning spectrum at a wholesale level so
various Internet service providers could use it to offer broadband
services. The Coalition for 4G America--including DirecTV, Google,
Intel, Skype, and Yahoo--also is pushing for rules to enable new
broadband entrants.
Two groups see a business model in using the spectrum for a public
safety network combined with commercial access. Cyren Call wants a slice
of the spectrum put in a public trust. Then it would partner with
telecoms that would build a network in exchange for being able to sell
wireless broadband services. "Public safety wants to own the spectrum,
not a private company that dictates what we can and cannot do with it,"
says Charles Werner, fire chief in Charlottesville, Va. Frontline
Wireless, co-founded by former FCC chairman Reed Hundt, with investors
including Netscape ex-CEO James Barksdale and John Doerr of Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers, aims to build a nationwide public safety
broadband network, then sell commercial access.
This is where government earns its keep: allocating scarce goods to
greatest public bene- fit. Measure success on progress toward a via-
ble, affordable wireless broadband network.
--
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