Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Kerry's Man- Hundt To Senate: Clear 700-800 MHz Spectrum

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 14:42:12 -0400

Kerry's Man- Hundt To Senate: Clear 700-800 MHz Spectrum
BY MARK ROCKWELL
APRIL 28, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Congress could advance broadband acceptance and use in the
United States dramatically and immediately through wireless technology
without completely re-writing telecom rules, a former FCC chairman told
a Senate panel today.

Reed Hundt, former commission chairman, told members of the Senate
Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation that the commission
could vastly facilitate implementation and acceptance of high-speed
wireless broadband by simply writing a letter to the FCC asking that the
agency re-examine the digital television signal threshold figures that
enables television stations to hang onto spectrum in the UHF spectrum
for analog broadcast. He also said Congress should ask the FCC to look
at secondary use of broadcast spectrum in areas where it is underused
and to issue an order asking that unlicensed devices be allowed to
operate in television broadcast spectrum at locations and times when the
spectrum isn't being used. The commission currently has an inquiry into
secondary use in 700 MHz.

Hundt, now on the boards of several high tech companies, including Wi-Fi
equipment provider Pronto Networks, said those moves would free more
desirable spectrum for immediate use of wireless companies looking to
provide ultra-high-speed broadband services -- operating at up to 10
Mbps -- not traditional "3G" applications. Hundt backs technology and
techniques such as Orthagonal Frequency Division Modulation, beam
forming for antenna reception and IP as wireless services that could
"deliver the bits" in such spectrum.

The former FCC chairman contends that the mandated 85 percent threshold
of digital signal penetration that allows broadcasters to keep analog
UHF spectrum has been crossed, if only the FCC would correctly count the
numbers it already has accumulated. Regulations say broadcasters can
hold onto the analog spectrum until 85 percent of the country has access
to a digital signal. Hundt said that goal has been largely accomplished
and the relatively small number of citizens who don't have the ability
to access the signal and can't afford a digital device could easily be
subsidized in the purchase of "set-top boxes."
Freeing up that spectrum in the 700 - 800 MHz band would provide cheap
widely available means to deliver high-speed wireless services, said
Hundt, in much the same way it did for broadcasters when it was granted
to them decades ago.
Hundt said if the coveted broadcast spectrum could be freed up, and the
FCC enforced its rules, wireless broadband could go a long way in
bringing the United States in line with other countries with superior
broadband penetration.

http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=newsat2direct&starting=5&pubdate=04/28/04

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