The Federal Communications Commission (FCC, www.fcc.gov) allocated 27 MHz in seven bands of spectrum to commercial use and now seeks comment on what rules are needed for the reallocated frequency bands.
The FCC said in its Dec. 28 rulemaking that the decision "will lead to the development of new technologies and services and provide spectrum alternatives for users currently operating on heavily encumbered spectrum where operations are constrained due to congestion."
The industry hailed the decision yesterday after ramping back up following the holiday break.
The TDD Coalition (www.tddcoalition.org), a telecommunications industry consortium, called the rulemaking an important step for the Time Division Duplexing (TDD) industry and all innovative spectrally efficient wireless technologies.
The action is the second time in less than a month that the commission has reclaimed spectrum for commercial use in order to promote new telecommunications technologies such as TDD.
The FCC Dec. 12 reallocated the entire 48 MHz of spectrum in the Lower 700 MHz band (698 MHz to 746 MHz) to fixed and mobile services. The FCC reclaimed this spectrum for new commercial services as part of the transition of television broadcasting from analog to digital transmission systems. In doing so, the FCC created two 6 MHz blocks of unpaired, contiguous spectrum for licensing.
"This [new ruling] is an important step toward encouraging technologies like TDD that require only a relatively small band for bi-directional broadband wireless communications," said Remi Chayer, chairman of the TDD Coalition and technical marketing manager at Harris Corp.
"As spectrum becomes more valuable, it becomes essential that we promote technologies like TDD that use only one channel for both upstream and downstream traffic, making this a particularly effective means of transmitting data in the most efficient way," Chayer said.
The TDD Coalition's 15- member organization includes Aperto Networks, ArrayComm, BeamReach Networks, CALY Networks, Clearwire Technologies, Harris Corp., InterDigital, IPWireless, LinkAir, Malibu Networks, Navini Networks, Pointred Technologies, Radiant Networks, Raze Technologies, and Wavion.
The FCC's adoption of the Government Transfer Bands Report and Order allocates spectrum in the bands of 216-220 MHz, 1390-1395 MHz, 1427-1429 MHz, 1429-1432 MHz, 1432-1435 MHz, 1670-1675 MHz, and 2385-2390 MHz, a total of 27 MHz, from government to commercial use.
The head of ArrayComm Inc. (www.arraycomm.com), a smart antenna wireless communications technology firm, said the FCC decision demonstrates the FCC's commitment to implementing a new U.S. spectrum management and allocation policy.
"The FCC's action, particularly its allocation of unpaired spectrum, is an important step toward bringing new wireless data services to America's consumers," said Martin Cooper, co-founder and CEO of ArrayComm. "Using existing technology, there is simply not enough spectrum available to provide new affordable wireless applications and to continue the expansion of existing services."
Cooper said that there is an opportunity to deploy, in some of this spectrum, innovative and spectrally efficient wireless services.
He said that the next step, now that the spectrum has been allocated, is for the FCC to expeditiously establish service rules and proceed to auction.
The FCC's decision is available online at: http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Orders/2001/fcc01382.txt
