Steps toward a high speed, affordable, ubiquitous wireless digital future
Posted: Thursday July 26, 2007
Ahead of his live blog session on Open Left.com concerning the development of a national broadband policy, MAP Senior Vice President Harold Feld outlined several steps necessary to create high speed and affordable wireless broadband access.
- The federal government should examine its own spectrum holdings and open the maximum spectrum for shared use.
- Government investment in infrastructure. Whether local, state or federal, investment by government in infrastructure is a long-standing means of promoting economic development and ensuring that we, as a nation maintain a common culture and shared standard of living.
- Further development of “open spectrum.” Only a fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum is open for “unlicensed use.” Yet in a few years, unlicensed spectrum has emerged as a stimulus for broadband deployment and for equipment and service development.
- Open devices/wireless Carterfone. Increasingly, policy makers and members of the public have become aware that allowing the handful of wireless companies that control the cellular market to control what devices connect to their networks and how they operate has seriously retarded the development and deployment of mobile wireless technologies in the United States.
- Recognize that spectrum auctions have run their course. The FCC is in the final stages of preparation for the auction of returned broadcast spectrum (aka “the 700 MHz Auction.”) This auction has sparked a huge debate on spectrum policy and highlighted the problems with using auctions to distribute spectrum.
Ultimately, the question of wireless is what do we want our digital future to look like. Following the same policies we have now will give us more of the same. Only by adopting new policies can we create a new wireless digital future.
Read the entire article