Upgrade and Repack; Repeat Forever
The DTV transition increased TV program capacity by three times while reducing TV’s spectrum footprint by half. The method that made his happen has general application. Contrary to some of the claims you’ve heard recently, clearing spectrum by upgrading existing systems and reassigning their excess spectrum is a sustainable practice. In fact, it’s the only sustainable practice. Read on to see why.
The Impractical PCAST Report
Here’s the press statement we issued from ITIF about the PCAST report: Contact: Steve Norton Communications Director 202-626-5758 [email protected] WASHINGTON (July 23, 2012) -Richard Bennett, Senior Research Fellow at the…
Hanging up on the Phone System
I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend The End of the Phone System conference at Wharton in Philadelphia last week as a respondent to one of the papers….
Isenberg Defends “Infinite Spectrum Capacity” Claims
Writing on his blog, David S. Isenberg defends the claims he made to New York Times reporter Brian X. Chen on infinite spectrum: The pervasive misunderstanding of how we use…
Unfit to Print
Spectrum policy is one of the most difficult policy issues that Congress has to deal with, and for that reason the Communications Act of 1934 established the FCC as a…
Growing the Wireless Economy through Innovation
Tomorrow, April 18th, I’ll be testifying at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation about mobile networking: Growing the Wireless Economy through Innovation. This subcommittee is part…
The 700 MHz Device Subsidy Plan
The FCC is considering new rules for mobile devices that operate in the 700 MHz band per a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) titled “Promoting Interoperability in the 700 MHz…
Low Versus High Radio Spectrum
Lower frequencies do offer advantages, but my view is that these advantages are often overstated. Most usage of mobile broadband networks will occur within higher population densities in which networks will have to be designed for capacity rather than coverage. In these scenarios, low and high frequencies offer almost equivalent performance.
Experimental Radio Applications at the FCC
This summarizes a selection from 215 applications for the Experimental Radio Service received by the FCC during October, November, and December 2011. These are related to AM broadcasting, FM broadcasting,…