Subject: [NEXTEL-1] An introduction to wireless spectrum regulation

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 15:17:21 -0400

An introduction to wireless spectrum regulationFarpoint Group 08/18/03 C.J.
Mathias,Farpoint Grouphttp://www.farpointgroup.com/ To begin with a really bad
analogy, suppose you bought a very popular (and thus rather expensive) toy, and
had lots of children who wanted to play with it. The first thing you'd do is set
up some rules. For example, Billy gets it from 10:00 to 11:00, and then Susie gets
it from 11:00 to 12:00, and so on. And there would be rules about what each child
could do with the toy, and what penalties there might be for abusing the rules or
the toy itself. The regulation of the radio spectrum is a lot like that, with, of
course, lots of lawyers and politicians thrown into the mix. The airwaves are
economically (and often financially) expensive, because there's limited capacity,
and they're thus a finite resource. Access to the spectrum via a radio-based
device can improve productivity and lead to profits, so there's likely to be
excessive demand. Without regulation, it's a safe bet that nobody would get much
done as radio transmitters quickly polluted the spectrum and would make it
essentially impossible for anyone to get their information through all the
noise. So, governmental regulatory bodies step in to set rules as to who can do
what, when, and how with certain portions of the radio spectrum, often called
bands. There are many different bands, and within bands different classes of
applications. Some activities (like broadcasting and cellular) get exclusive
access to their bands, while others (such as those used for wireless LANs) are
shared with other applications. The regulators set such items as transmit power
levels, how much spectrum a band will occupy, and many technical and even
political parameters. The general trend in recent years has been to use an auction
process to make spectrum for new applications (such as new cellular services)
available to the highest bidder, with less regulation of specific technologies and
other detail. However, large amounts of spectrum have been made available at no
charge for limited-range applications, like cordless phones and wireless LANs. For
data applications, more bandwidth means improved reliability and, of course,
higher throughput. But, again, since everyone can always use more spectrum, the
regulation process is often lengthy, political, and expensive. What's more, each
country sets its own rules for spectrum regulation. In the United States, the
Federal Communications Commission is the regulator of civilian use of the
spectrum, with most of the work being done by the Wireless Telecommunications
Bureau. Spectrum for federal government activities is managed by the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration. The most influential
organization in Europe is the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and
the European nations try to have similar regulations given their geographic
proximity. But, and this is universally true around the world, spectrum regulation
is complex and considered a national right, so nations are rarely in complete
agreement with one another (on this and most other questions as well!). But
because radio waves can easily travel across national borders, it's important to
have a forum for ironing out spectrum allocations and regulations that affect more
than individual countries. The International Telecommunications Union, part of the
United Nations, sponsors the World Radio Communication Conference every few years
to work on emerging long-distance technologies and balancing the needs of growing
economies against the more established. Access to spectrum is obviously critical
to economic development and to competitiveness in a global economy. Oddly, then,
spectrum regulation isn't really about technology at all. It's really about
politics, economics, and making far-reaching guesses about which services to
devote spectrum to. Fortunately, the trend in recent years, on a global basis, has
been to allocate more spectrum for those activities that provide greater
capabilities in mobile voice and data communications - just the sort of services
you and I need. And despite warnings of a "spectrum shortage", there's really no
such problem on the horizon. Thanks to basic improvements in radio and antenna
technology, and more efficient component and system architectures, there's plenty
of spectrum to go around - and a lot more that we can do with
it.   http://wireless.itworld.com/4248/031803wirelessreg/page_1.html

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/