The FCC’s gag order just came off, and there are no big surprises from AT&T regarding theor future plans for the spectrum they control.

AT&T wasted absolutely no time setting up a press conference to discuss how it was planning to utilize its win in the so-called B Block. Bottom line: AT&T’s moving to LTE for its 4G infrastructure — no surprise there, since it’s the natural evolution for GSM carriers — and the purchase is designed to support that build-out. As they’ve said before, they’re tooting their horn over the fact that the B Block action combined with the Aloha spectrum purchase gives the carrier 100 percent coverage in the 700MHz arena in the top 200 US markets, while also noting that the frequency range is stellar at breaking through walls for hot in-building coverage. (Endgadget)

I don’t expect to see AT&T build out very quickly unless there is a rapid ramp up from a competitor like Xohm/Sprint. AT&T and Verizon already control the lions share of 2 way wireless spectrum in the US which means there is little or no space for new competition to form even with the right funding and leadership. I think the rules of the game for both of the big telcos will continue be to build slowly and charge dearly.

Hey if you just paid $16B for a brand new set of digs overlooking the Pacific ocean only to find a bunch of squatters in there what would you do? Yeah me too, I’d call the cops and have them evicted. Well what if it was the 700mhz spectrum? Ah hah! –

Imagine you just spent a fortune on some excellent beachfront property, only to discover some termites in the basement. Now imagine that the only way to get rid of the termites involves some toxic chemicals that may arouse the ire of the environmentally conscious locals. What do you do? Learn to live with the termites, or spray and tell your green neighbors to deal?

Oddly, Verizon and AT&T now find themselves in a similar mess — if we substitute “wireless microphones” for “termites.” Verizon and AT&T (As well as a bunch of other folks) just spent a boatload of cash on licenses in the reclaimed analog television spectrum. The FCC has rules in place to migrate the broadcasters — both full power and low power. But — as far as I can tell — no one has plans to migrate the wireless microphone folks, who operate on vacant channels in the band. While in theory wireless microphones are a secondary licensed service and notifying the licensees that channels 52-69 are off limits after the digital conversion, the situation is a little more complicated. As comments filed in white spaces proceeding confirm, wireless microphones are bloody everywhere — with huge numbers of users buying and operating them without licenses.

Somehow I just can’t form the visual of the FCC wearing the Orkin uniform.

Is this a great country or what?

Linky.

We’ve been vocal proponents of more open access spectrum as in open to all, unlicensed like Wifi. A proposed use vacant spaces (white spaces) between DTV channels has been met with an onslaught of resistance from broadcasters, whom I suspect want the space reserved for future use by themselves.

A new proposal from Google could be the secret sauce needed to get regulators to swallow the white paces concept.

In comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, Google said it would propose an enhanced system to prevent wireless devices operating in the so-called “white space” from interfering with adjacent television channels and wireless microphones.

Google said the enhancements “will eliminate any remaining legitimate concerns about the merits of using the white space for unlicensed personal/portable devices.”

The FCC currently is testing equipment to see if they can make use of the white space spectrum without interfering with television broadcasts. (Yahoo News)

In a move that actually makes sense the FCC changes the method of how output power is measured for PCS and AWS-1 equipment. To quote the FCC release –

Today’s rule changes offer greater flexibility to PCS and AWS-1 operators, are more
technologically neutral, and will better accommodate broadband technologies. The PSD model also has the potential to reduce network infrastructure costs, thus enabling providers to offer enhanced wireless broadband services, including to consumers living in rural America.

The existing PCS and AWS-1 rules measure radiated power in terms of watts per emission and limit power output regardless of bandwidth size. In the PSD model, radiated power levels are calculated on a watts-per-megahertz basis when operating with greater than one megahertz of bandwidth.

Effectively it means that the higher bands like 700mhz, 2.6 & 5Ghz will be permitted to emit more watts to the antenna. In a world that will be dominated by spread spectrum technologies this is a good move. This will also extend the reach of many of these services.

Course those TinHats in California won’t be happy.

Link to order.

Well the 700mhz auction closed last week and the results are in. We the taxpayers kept the government functional for about a week with the funds garned by this effort. Just wish that the monies gathered were then turned around and used to deploy the services, towers and other bits. Regardless here is the breakdown by license. –

The ‘D’ block has been broken out and will be auctioned off at a later date. Date if TBD.

By the way there seems to be some dissension between the commissioners. Martin is calling it a success. Adelstein however is moaning about the lack of diversity in the winning bidders. Wish I was a fly on the wall to hear the closed door meeting.

Linky.

So its all said and done. The auction of the century is finished, all $19.5B of it. So of the big names what were the runs, hits and errors?

• Google: Error. Yes they played the game for ‘open access’ but did they get it? If Verizon is going to play the same game on the 700mhz block as they are doing with their ‘Open Wireless’ gambit of device per device certification then Google lost. This error will ultimately come back to bite them when Verizon starts throttling adsense content in favor of their own. Count on it.
• AT&T: Hits. Like I suspected they filled in their presence in areas where the Aloha Networks buy was not. This has to go down as the wisest use of capital of any of the players. AT&T now has a near national presence for 30% off the cover price that Verizon paid for the national ‘C’ block.
• Verizon: Runs. Yep, the big winner. What can you say? They showed up at the table with a big wad of chips and just wore down the other players in the game. Didn’t even bluff, just kept on bidding. The only question remaining? They have a strike scheduled in August, will their backer still be there if the strike is still running in January?

2010 will have some interesting twists. My gut is saying that AT&T might be the first out of the gate. They want to nip XOhm in the bud for share. If the VZ strike winds up badly it could delay them for at least a year. We shall see.

More power to those who already have too much. If anything, Verizon should have been required to release some of the spectrum they hold license to in order to bid, but no such requirement was made.

One company now holds the fate of American mobile broadband in their hands, and they have a horrible track record when it comes to providing a equally good experience for all. Look for a bunch of pressure to backpedal on the FCC requirements beginning now….. the sprirt of the rules will only live on in the creative writing of V’s marketing department! The rules will change as language is twisted and bureaucrats are lobbied.

This will position V to better compete with the larger AT&T, and will probably help thier stock price. Congrats to the V’s shareholders. At least someone will benefit.

As for the consumer two competitors does not make a market place, it makes a duopoly. We were already trying to get past the fixed line duopoly. Welcome to the wireless one.

Just my opinion, and I pray I’m wrong.

It’s official: Verizon Wireless has won licenses for nationwide coverage in the C-Block in the 700MHz spectrum auction conducted by the Federal Communications Commission.

This means that Verizon, not Google, will control the spectrum that is required by the FCC to adhere to special open-access rules. (Cnet)

The feds have raised almost $20 billion from the re-purposing of a few analog TV channels. Who won? We’ll know when the FCC announces, in an estimated 10 days.

We’re most concerned with the C block, which has open access provisions in its rules. The suspected bidders were Google and Verizon Communications. Most analysts are predicting Verizon the winner. I my assessment, this is the worst of possible outcomes for the end user. If Google won, we’ll see something of a rapid, wild west style explosion of totally open wireless access. If Verizon is the winner look to a slow and steady deployment of something resembling their fixed line service, with only some of the available bandwidth being used for open access. With V as the operator we could get goegraphic more coverage than we have today, but not much new competition.  We will still be searching for our Third Pipe.

So Verion, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have launched the trend that will change their industry. So what does this do to the telecommunications scene? Its obvious for the wireless industry. We mentioned it previously. But what about land line, VoIP, etc?

VoIP –

• Man their life just got harder. In a situation where someone was using a wireless plan local and VoIP for national calling that is about to fall apart. The consumer could apply their Vonage $$ to their wireless plan and go unlimited on a single instrument.
• As a business model standalone VoIP is toast. As a technology it will survive. But as a enabler to carrier technologies.
• Google’s Grand Central maybe the alternative that represents VoIP. Gmail has already inegrated IM and voice.
• SIP as a VoIP sister will also survive. But its use will be layered under integrated, unified portals be it cell, mail systems or textual contexts or an amalgam of all of them.

Landline POTS –

• The exodus for primary lines will go from single digits to double digits in a year. That will make their POTS debt structure harder to sustain.
• A battle is going to occur between the Telcos and the Federal Government on ‘Carrier of Last Resort’ provisions. Though the carriers get compensated for doing so it won’t be enough to offset the capital drain to maintain older technology or upgrading low density areas on a long term basis.
• The cross over point. At some period in the near future the Telcos are going to be earning more income on broadband and its services than on POTS. When that occurs and penetration of broadband is over 50% they will again wish to move off the old technology even in profitable POTs areas. Fiber is cheaper to maintain and they will wish to go there.

700mhz –

• The unlimited plans set the upper marker for similar services in the pending 700mhz band. To get any further funding out of the customer will require new differentiated services.
• To encourage a customer to switch to the 700mhz services the costs will also have to be cheaper just to forestall some of the switching costs.
• Quality of Service better be better! Wireless still has problems with QoS. A clearer connection would be a fair customer inducement.
• Penetration. Can’t expect it initially, but at some point the new kid will have to have penetration levels comparable to wireless today. Its the price of ante long term.

Other –

• As a practical matter does it make sense to continue a 10 digit number scheme? In a world where the cell morphs into the communicator and its use transcends just cell telephony the old 10 digit system might be passe. It might just as identifying for someone to use their XXXXXXX@gmail.com name as a number.
• Routing services evolve away from SS7 of the PSTN world. An enhanced RADIUS-like metadirectory structure takes over so that the directory system is unified and extensible and possibly even user modifiable. XML like tools and structures make that possible.

And so it begins…

Compilation by admin and Dr. Dog.

Don’t always focus on saving money at the outset; such as in the process of domain registration. Unless your website design is not attractive; it can’t appeal your visitors to stay there. Also bear in mind the tracking of internet connectivity i.e. dsl or ISP types of your visitors. Your web hosting servers should comply with all types of ISPs and explorers.

It’s now pretty much a certainty that there will be a all out war between the Wimax and LTE camps for dominance in the 700MHz band. Not only is the US at stake, the UHF band is emerging as the defacto next gen mobile services band worldwide.

The WiMAX Forum today said it would include 700 MHz in its future certification profiles, creating a new opening for WiMAX vendors to sell their gear. With the forum officially pursuing 700 MHz, the stage may be set for a showdown between WiMAX and Long Term Evolution as both technologies are now targeted squarely at the spectrum. (from Telephony Online)