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FCC Spectrum Management Mistakes: The “Sweet Sixteen” List - Part 4 Summary and Reflections

We have now finished reviewing the dismal (partial) list of historic FCC spectrum management engineering mistakes, and in this final part of the series we’ll look at some suggestions for how the FCC could, ideally, conduct this highly-important function.  The Commission would never adopt any of these proposals, of course, but “even engineers can dream!” [...]

FCC Spectrum Management Mistakes: The “Sweet Sixteen” List - Part 3

In this post we will finish the list of FCC historic spectrum management mistakes that began with Part 1 of this series. 12.  Land Mobile “Re-farming:” (1990s-present). By itself not a major league blunder, but more of a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” gambit.  The basic idea is to halve, and then later halve again, the [...]

LBA’s Chris Horne Warns of Spectrum-Splitting Issues

Just three decades after the first generation of wireless telephone technology was introduced, engineers, wireless operators, and industry analysts are talking about the best way to split the fourth generation broadband spectrum into more usable parts. It could get messy, LBA Group’s Chris Horne warns. Horne’s warning came in a discussion at last week’s 4G [...]

FCC Spectrum Management Mistakes: The “Sweet Sixteen” List - Part 2

Now, we continue the long list of FCC historic spectrum management mistakes that began with Part 1 of this blog series. 6.  Nextel (1990s).  Back when it all began they were known as “Fleetcall,” but their real intention became apparent with the re-naming of the company after a few years.  Their mission: to construct a [...]

LBA Urges FCC to Incentivize AM Colocation

LBA Group has asked the Federal Communications Commission to speed up broadband deployment by promoting wireless antenna collocation on AM towers. How? By cutting local red tape for collocations and halving the annual AM fee for station owners who allow use of their towers. The Sept. 30 filing in WC Docket No. 11-59 is LBA’s [...]

LightSquared shifts spectrums, salvages its 4G network launch

gps-network

LightSquared apparently has dodged a GPS bullet that almost shot it down before it started up. It will switch to another spectrum that virtually eliminates interference with Global Positioning System receivers. Early tests by the Reston, Va., 4G network provider indicated that one 10-megahertz spectral block of its Long Term Evolution (LTE) open wireless broadband [...]

Why AM Stations Have A Key Role In Broadband Deployment! – Free Webinar!

lawrence-behr

Although they are a hundred years and a thousand megahertz apart, broadband wireless systems and AM broadcast have a curious and important relationship! Through this free webinar “AM Radio: Traps & Promises in Broadband Deployment” presented by WCAI and LBA, you will learn about AM transmission, how the AM towers and wireless towers interact, and [...]

Wireless Signal Booster Rules Coming

Typical Signal Booster System

Recent legal cases between some wireless carriers and manufacturers of signal boosters also known as handset amplifiers have moved the FCC to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to address interference concerns by the mobile operator. The FCC initiated the proceeding to “facilitate the development and deployment of well-designed signal boosters” In the proceeding, [...]

EBS Substantial Service Deadline Extended!

FCC logo

Great news for Educational Broadband Service (EBS) license holders, the Federal Communications Commission has granted an extension to file showings of Substantial Service for EBS license holders. On March 21, 2011 the FCC adopted a memorandum and order that concludes, “we waive the requirements for licensees to individually file extension requests. We also extend the [...]

Can LTE 4G create Interference with Cable TV? Yes!

Figure 1: Channel Plans for LTE and Existing Cable TV Sub-band

The rollout of 3G networks across the country is old news with the recent announcements by Verizon, AT&T, and others to rapidly deploy 700 MHz 4G LTE this year throughout the USA. These high speed networks are slated to grow with ten’s of thousands of new towers and antennas, and to employ novel digital modulation [...]

‘Not so fast!’ is surprise reaction to broadband campaign

Availability of Broadband in the US by County

President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar proposal to give every home broadband access seems to be a campaign without a constituency. This is not the first time administration efforts seem guided by something other than a groundswell of consensus. The administration has directed that $7.2 billion in stimulus fund grants target the broadband upgrade effort, declaring that universal [...]

The national broadbandwagon plan

cimlay@sbe.org

This isn’t really news. President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum on June 8, 2010 entitled Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution. This committed the federal government to find an available 500 MHz of federal and commercial spectrum over the next 10 years for reallocation to broadband. The President said that this spectrum will foster investment, economic growth and help create hundreds of thousands of jobs by meeting the “burgeoning demand” for mobile and fixed broadband, other “high-value uses” and benefits for other industries. Currently, wireless companies have about 534 megahertz allotted to them. That number will double in the next ten years, apparently. [...]

“MUST EVERYTHING BE MOBILE?”
A Radioman’s Paean to the Wired Telecommunications Circuit

The US economy, juiced by the national popular culture, is about to commit another major telecommunications blunder!  The title of this piece gives a clue to it.  Since there is no way to stop or to prevent the developing blunder, it might be of some use at least to understand what we are doing. American [...]

THE FCC’S NATIONAL BROADBAND PLAN: NICE TRY, GUYS, BUT TEAR IT UP AND START OVER!

curmudgeon

As everyone knows, the FCC has released a draft of their National Broadband Plan.  Whoopee! They labored mightily, and they gave birth to a mouse.  And probably a congenitally deformed mouse at that! At least in its outline form, the plan is what you might expect from a panel of LEPs (Lawyers, Economists, and Politicians) [...]

FCC Offers a “Free” Broadband Speedchecker

FCC Broadband Speedchecker

We’re not used to freebies from the FCC, but they just offered up a broadband Speedchecker to see how your carrier is performing. Get it here. Nothing’s really free from the FCC, of course. The Speedchecker is a Trojan horse. Before you can run it, you have to give up personal address information, presumably to [...]