Frequency Assignment
The result of spectrum management is ultimately frequency assignment. A completely free market approach would auction spectrum and permit a secondary market. However, some interests would find it difficult to participate in auctions. Such interests would include amateur radio, scientific research, and public safety. For example, it would be possible for your local police department to bid for spectrum like everyone else, but the costs would conceivably increase and a certain amount of chaos could ensue in the interim. Hence, the federal government legislatively has set aside frequencies for these public uses.
Other factors impinge upon service rules. For example, radiolocation and radionavigation and shipborne transmissions are high-powered and can interfere with neighboring users.
Therefore, the assignment of frequency demands a balance of many factors. Among these are federal law, the interests of incumbent spectrum holders, the interests of new entrants, technological innovation, public interest requirements, the particular applications of spectrum use, international spectrum coordination and trade, and, finally, lobbying from commercial interests.
One should add that the proceeds from auctions, though interesting, are not a prime motivator for having auctions. Given the size of the federal budget, auction proceeds are modest. However, auctioning does provide an economic incentive to the winner to use the spectrum wisely, so public policy is advanced because more efficient use of spectrum means that more people can benefit from it. In the words of Dale Hatfield, the head of the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology in 1999, "I always thought the notion was to get the spectrum into the hands of entrepreneurs that are able to use it; that we were not supposed to be managing spectrum to maximize the revenues that were gained through the auction process or gaming it that way. That sounds about as central planning as you can get."
The Future of Auction Proceeds
The U.S. taxpayer has benefited from the auctioning of the nation's airwaves. The aggregate proceedings from 15 FCC auctions account for more than $23 billion for the U.S. Treasury (see www.fcc.gov/wtb/auctions.html for details). Congress, pleasantly surprised by the initial reaction to PCS auctions in the mid-1990s, looked upon the auctions as a relatively painless way of filling federal coffers. That's the good news.
The bad news is that it's possible to have too much of a good thing. The new reality is that spectrum is being used more efficiently, so less of it is needed and auctions stand to generate less income. The market is having trouble digesting the spectrum it has, due partly to technological limitations.
The result is that proceeds from auctions have weakened substantially since the multibillion-dollar proceeds of PCS. In particular, MMDS and LMDS auctions were regarded as less than stellar. Further auctions are planned in the 39 GHz and higher range. Perhaps some time should be given to technology and the markets to digest the spectrum already available.
The result to date is reflected in the current frequency assignment for residential broadband services and certain familiar narrowband services, shown in Table 6-2.
Classes of Wireless Services
To introduce the reader to RBB wireless access networks, this chapter identifies six broad classes of wireless services and shows how RBB wireless are categorized. Similarly, current wireless services are grouped to show similarities between the new and old services. The two columns in Table 6-3 indicate two broad classes of wireless services: narrowband and wideband, or broadband. Narrowband services provide enough bandwidth for voice. Broadband services have more bandwidth, to support video and high-speed commercial uses.
The rows indicate delivery mechanisms. The broad classes are satellite, mobile, and fixed. Satellite services can be distributed from geosynchronous or low Earth orbits. Mobile services are basically the familiar cellular telephone services. Fixed services operate between two stationary endpoints.
The major private commercial use of interest here is broadband wireless access, which are indicated in bold in this table. The next section discusses the first of these services: satellites.
| From (MHz) | To (MHz) | Use |
|---|---|---|
| 54 | 72 | TV channels 2, 3, and 4 |
| 76 | 88 | TV channels 5 and 6 |
| 88 | 108 | FM radio |
| 175 | 216 | TV channels 7 to 13 |
| 470 | 746 | TV channels 14 to 59 (UHF) |
| 746 | 806 | TV channels 60 to 69, subject to imminent bandclearing |
| 824 | 849 | Cellular telephony (uplink) |
| 869 | 894 | Cellular telephony (downlink) |
| 902 | 928 | Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band (unlicensed) |
| 890 | 915 | GSM (uplink) |
| 935 | 960 | GSM (downlink) |
| 1850 | 1910 | Wideband PCS blocks A, B, C (licensed) paired with bands 1930 to 1990 |
| 1910 | 1930 | Wideband PCS (unlicensed) |
| 1930 | 1990 | Wideband PCS; Blocks D, E, F (licensed)paired with bands 1850 to 1910 |
| 2150 | 2162 | Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS), now combined with Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) |
| 2305 | 2320 | Wireless Communications Service (WCS) |
| 2345 | 2360 | Wireless Communications Service (WCS) |
| 2400 | 2483.5 | Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) band (unlicensed) |
| 2500 | 2596 | Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS), now combined with MMDS |
| 2596 | 2644 | Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Services (MMDS) |
| 2644 | 2686 | ITFS, now combined with MMDS |
| 5150 | 5350 | Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) |
| 5725 | 5825 | Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) |
| 12,200 | 12,700 | Direct Broadcast Satellite |
| 18,800 | 19,300 | Teledesic downlink |
| 27,500 | 28,350 | Local Multipoint Distribution Services (LMDS), Block A |
| 28,600 | 29,100 | Teledesic uplink |
| 29,100 | 29,250 | LMDS Block A |
| 31,000 | 31,075 | LMDS Block B |
| 31,075 | 31,225 | LMDS Block A |
| 31,225 | 31,300 | LMDS Block B |
|
Sources:
www.omega.com ; www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf ; www.cabledatacomnews.com/wireless/ www.fcc.gov/oet/info/database/spectrum/spinvtbl.pdf ; www.wcai.com ; www.fcc.gov/wtb ; [McMahan] |
| Narrowband | Broadband | |
|---|---|---|
| Satellite | Iridium Globalstar |
DBS
Teledesic Skybridge C band Ku band Ka band |
| Mobile | Cell phones (1G, 2G) | 3G wireless |
| Fixed |
Amateur radio
Public Safety Government uses Research, space |
MMDS
LMDS 38 GHz |