Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Coalition Urges FCC to Open More Spectrum for Unlicensed Public Access

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 02:28:20 -0400

8/09/2003

Coalition Urges FCC to Open More Spectrum for Unlicensed Public Access

 On Monday a coalition of public interest groups and wireless community
 networks filed formal Comments to the FCC urging the Commission to
 open underused spectrum for unlicensed citizen access -- an action
 that would provide rural and underserved communities with more
 affordable access to wireless broadband Internet connections.  The
 coalition responded to FCC-proposed changes to the large band
 originally allocated to nonprofit institutions for Instructional
 Television Fixed Service (ITFS) and to private firms for commercial
 video services (MMDS).  Although ITFS licensees originally were
 awarded license rights in exchange for providing educational services,
 the band has been vastly underused and the FCC has allowed licensees
 to lease out most of the spectrum to private firms.  The FCC-proposed
 rule changes would reduce the spectrum available for education and
 encourage educational licensees to sell their licenses to private
 companies, effectively ending the educational obligations associated
 with the band.

 In order to preserve and expand the noncommercial benefits of the ITFS
 band, the coalition urged the Commission to reallocate one half of the
 entire ITFS/MDS band (90 MHz) for unlicensed public access on a
 primary basis.  This portion of the band would be located at 2.5 GHz,
 directly adjacent to the 2.4 GHz band currently used by WiFi services.
 Current educational applications that need to relocate would be
 reimbursed by spectrum revenue or by fees manufacturers would collect
 on WiFi-type equipment.   Alternatively, the coalition recommends that
 a band equivalent to the current ITFS allocation (120 MHz) be
 preserved for educational uses on a primary basis, but opened for
 unlicensed sharing to maximize unlicensed citizen access. The
 coalition also opposed allowing licensees to sell spectrum they never
 paid for, urging instead that any auctions return revenue to the
 public.

 The full Comments are located at
 http://www.newamerica.net/Download_Docs/pdfs/Pub_File_1350_1.pdf.

 Other groups signing the comments include Consumers Union, Consumer
 Federation of America, the New America Foundation, Media Access
 Project, the Benton Foundation, Center for Digital Democracy, and
 Public Knowledge.  Also joining the coalition are wireless community
 access networks NYCwireless.org, Seattlewireless.net, and the Bay Area
 Wireless User Group (BAWUG.org) and wireless ISPs Roadstar Internet
 Services, of Northern Virginia, and Emenity, Inc., of New York City.

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