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)

The FCC’s worries over slow and low bidding are over as the collective players have now ponied up nearly $20 Billion for the slices of thin air int he 700MHz spectrum.

After 32 rounds, the FCC has raised more than $18.8 billion in its 700-MHz auction, well surpassing its own early estimates of attracting between $10-15 billion in offers.

That’s undoubtedly good news for the agency. Since the auction began on Jan. 24, both the FCC and wireless experts have expressed ongoing concerns about meeting those estimates. Once the auction was underway, those worries were compounded by a shaky economic forecast and the possibility of a looming recession.

Interestingly, the fiercest bidding continues to be for a handful of regional licenses, implying that most bidders are incumbent carriers, not new entrants to the wireless space, and that their biggest priority is simply to fill in various gaps in their own coverage.

As of Tuesday, no further offers have appeared for the nationwide C Block license package or the D Block combination commercial-public safety spectrum. The last anonymous bid for the C Block, for $4.71 billion, remains the highest to date and most industry experts believe there are only three companies currently in the running: Google, Verizon and AT&T.
(from Wired)

Perhaps the rules should have required incumbent carriers to forfeit spectrum equal to that they would acquire to make the field more even? Unfortunately, it’s doubtful that the outcome of the auction will best serve the public interest, and it’s certain that none of the money will be spent with a single shred of wisdom.

With AT&T’s purchase of 700 MHz spectrum from Aloha receiving FCC approval, Verizon may find themselves bandwidth challenged in the wireless future. We had reported earlier that there was odd activity it the regional chunks of the national “C” block of spectrum. Today the Register is reporting that the sum of the bids for the parts is now larger the the 1 bid for the whole:

On Thursday, in round 17 of the auction, someone bid $4.7bn for the whole package. But yesterday, in rounds 27 through 30, someone started bidding large for the regional licenses. Eventually, the sum of the regional bids topped the bid for the whole package. If the auction ended today, the regionals bids would take the cake.

“If the sum of the children is greater than the parent, then the children win,” explains Moshal.

Still with us?

Chances are, it was Google that made the overarching $4.7bn bid - and it was Verizon that started tossing around regional bids, trying to win the C Block in a whole new way.

What happens if someone like Verizon only wins some of the regional licenses? Obviously, they can’t use the others. But they could fill in the holes with spectrum from other slices of the 700-MHz band: the A, B, and E Blocks. These blocks - which sit at a different frequency - are also split up into regional licenses, but they can’t be purchased as complete 50-state packages.

(The D Block is a different matter. It can only be won as a nationwide whole, and whoever wins it is required to build a wireless network specifically for public safety).

So, Verizon could piece together a nationwide network by mixing and matching slices of spectrum from the A, B, C, and E Blocks. It just has to make sure that the sum of the bids for the regional C Block licenses top the bid for the entire C Block package.

“If you wanted to cover the whole country with a network,” says Moshal, “you could also win some of the pieces of the C Block and make up the rest by bidding on other blocks.”

Judging from current bidding patterns, it seem like Verizon - or someone else - is hoping to do this very thing.

Is Darth V trying to outbid Google in stealth mode? If so, I hope Google’s reading. While the regulations on the C block call for open access, I prefer Google’s definition of what is open over Verizon’s. Darth V has a long history of challenging, gaming, incrementally re-writing and just plain ignoring regulations. In the end how open the C block is will dictate how open all wireless networks will be.