The FCC made its final report entitled The Potential for Accommodating Third Generation Mobile Systems late last week. We may span a few generations before 3G technology arrives in the U.S.

by ISP-Planet Staff [April 3, 2001]

The Federal Communication Commission's plans to reallocate U.S. airwaves to facilitate the deployment of 3G wireless services could take nine to 29 years, according to industry experts.

The problem is that some of the airwaves initially identified as potentially usable for 3G commercial applications are already being used by the U.S. Defense Department, specifically the 1710-1850 megahertz (MHz) band. Other frequencies, like the 2500-2690 MHz band, are used for fixed wireless cable as well as video services at schools and health care centers might also have to find a new home.

Executive summary
The findings of the two reports are detailed in the ISP-Planet executive summaries, available here.

Industry experts
Both reports come as little surprise to the wireless industry, which received an interim version of a very similar report last November.

Many of the groups that would be affected by the spectrum reallocation plan expressed their approval of the program. The National Instructional Television Fixed Service (ITFS) Association, which represents nearly 1,300 licensees that provide educational services, and Wireless Communications Association (WCA) both praised the FCC for its findings, as well as the NTIA report.

The fact that both the NTIA and the FCC said they planned to press ahead with some type of band-sharing or relocation plan in spite of their findings was casue for FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth to issue a terse statement renouncing the commission's decision.

"Forced relocation of fully authorized commercial licensees is one of the most dramatic examples of government diminishing licensees’ rights," Furchtgott-Roth said. "Tampering with this relationship—which the FCC itself created and encouraged—undermines certainty and will retard the development of the services we have spent years incubating."

— End