United Press International - Hi-Tech - Wireless World: Feds vacate airwaves

United Press International - Hi-Tech - Wireless World: Feds vacate airwaves

"Wireless World: Feds vacate airwaves
By GENE J. KOPROWSKI

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- The government is getting out of the way of next-generation mobile broadband services -- a new niche being developed by cell-phone companies -- by preparing to spend $936 million to move its radio communications onto an obscure segment of the spectrum, experts are telling United Press International's Wireless World.

'With 90 megahertz of additional spectrum, today's cellular carriers will be tomorrow's next-generation broadband providers,' Michael D. Gallagher, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, said in a statement.
It's something like an eminent-domain case -- except this time, the government is vacating the space in order to further the technology economy, rather than the reverse.

The U.S. Department of Commerce this week issued a report on the costs of the move, under a requirement imposed by Congress in the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act.
Passed a year ago this month, the act called for auctioning spectrum in the 1710- to 1755-MHz band used for fixed wireless government communications. The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration was given the assignment of estimating the cost of reallocating systems already operating in the band. The NTIA said the $936 million figure is much less than the wireless industry had estimated.

'We found a way to open up a 'beach front' spectrum for key economic activity without jeopardizing our national security,' Gallagher added. "



73 fer nw,
Bob AD5VJ

10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.n5iet.com/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.