The Growing Demand for Spectrum

I’ve written a column for CNET on spectrum policy, “Meeting the need for spectrum,” addressing some of the arguments we hear about spectrum demand and supply. Some advocates insist that…

May 15, 2011 20

Reports from NAB and CTIA Address Efficient Use of Spectrum

Recent contributions to the mobile broadband spectrum debate are reports from NAB and CTIA. Before reading them I envisioned writing a “dueling reports” piece, but they mostly complement each other….

May 15, 2011 3

The Voice of the Future

Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype is the tech story of the day. Reactions to the still-unofficial deal are all over the place, ranging from suspicions that MS overpaid, speculations about where…

May 10, 2011 1

The Challenge of HD Video Streaming on LTE

One of AT&T’s non-redacted arguments in support of its acquisition of T-Mobile USA is that data usage on AT&T’s network is projected to “skyrocket by a factor of eight to…

April 24, 2011 3

Forecasting Spectrum Demand

There’s been a lot of talk lately regarding the looming spectrum crisis in America, with the FCC and the mobile operators talking it up, and some bloggers, analysts, and buffs…

April 19, 2011 4

Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC

This summarizes a selection of applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during March 2011. These are related to VHF propagation, satellite communications, TV white space, military…

April 15, 2011 0

Smartphone data explosion and spectrum

A recent report on the mobile spectrum crunch (PDF) by Rysavy research and MobileFuture highlighted the urgent need for wireless spectrum to avoid a potentially stagnant mobile broadband market due…

April 11, 2011 6

Signal boosters causing some of AT&T’s dropped calls

AT&T has been getting hammered in the press lately for a new wireless customer survey from ChangeWave on dropped cell phone calls.  But in a company policy blog posting, AT&T…

April 7, 2011 0

AT&T and T-Mobile – Interpreting the Spin

AT&T and T-Mobile have collected their press release and associated documents on one web site. A few points caught my eye. “AT&T is now burning through 10 MHz of spectrum…

March 30, 2011 0

Should a Sales Brochure Underlie US Spectrum Policy?

The FCC relies on Cisco’s forecast of mobile-broadband data demand as a basis for spectrum policy. Called the Visual Networking Index, it comes up many times in the National Broadband…

March 29, 2011 2