Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Regulators Praise and Criticize Wireless

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 14:53:02 -0500

Regulators Praise and Criticize Wireless
BY MARK ROCKWELL
JANUARY 14, 2003

WASHINGTON--Wireless communications was praised by regulators and lawmakers
here today as an example of how a competitive telecommunications market
should work, but at the same time those regulators are also taking a more critical
look at it.

During today's Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing on telecom
competition, wireless technology, and in particular Wi-Fi, was repeatedly referred
to as an alternative to cable and wireline telephone companies. All five FCC
commissioners appeared before a packed committee room to explain their views
on how they see competition evolving, and faced some tough questions about
their past regulatory actions.

'The most of the significant competition in voice has come from wireless phone
service,' said FCC Chairman Michael Powell. Powell's viewpoint was echoed by FCC
Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. 'Wireless services offer a dynamic and
burgeoning new avenue for competition in both broadband and voice
communications,' Adelstein said.

Several Senators also expounded the virtues of freeing up spectrum and filling it
with innovative data services such as Wi-Fi. At the hearing, Sen. Barbara Boxer,
D-Calif., and Sen. George Allen, R-Va., announced they have introduced a bill that
would make more spectrum available for developing services such as Wi-Fi.

The excitement was tempered as some senators showed they were getting more
technically savvy about what Wi-Fi can do. 'Isn't it true that Wi-Fi requires a
broadband wired connection that's within 300 feet' of the wireless access point?'
asked Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. Brownback said Wi-Fi is terrific, but the
technical details still require that a wired broadband connection be deployed by
someone to make Wi-Fi possible. That leaves regulators back at deciding how to
most effectively free up wireline carriers to deploy broadband last mile
connections.
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=3&pubdate=01/14/03

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