In the US, the battle is to get enough spectrum in almost any band to support universal broadband plans. The regulator, the FCC, has delayed publication of its broadband plan, but promises this will appear in March, about one month late. And the agency has repeated warnings that more spectrum will be needed to achieve its goals, even with 700MHz and 2.5GHz already in play.
FCC chairman Julius Genachowski turned up at the Consumer Electronics Show last week for a public exchange with Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). He received a surprisingly easy ride from normally anti-regulatory Shapiro, who concluded the session by saying: “We all wish you well. We can tell you have the brains. And your heart’s in the right place.”
Genachowski said the FCC plan would focus on an “open pipe” to ensure a free market in broadband, and said the roadmap would be “aspirational and inspirational but pragmatic.” The priority for the FCC in the coming few years would be to ‘rein in economic forces that drive toward less competition’ and to make its processes more transparent. He repeated the usual justifications for universal access, such as enhanced education and better information and management in healthcare and energy. But he alluded to the “looming crisis” in the availability of spectrum for, mobile communications, broadcasting and new digital applications.
“One of the areas I find myself, not by choice, spending time on every day in my job, is on spectrum scarcity,” said Genachowski. “There is not enough spectrum in this country for everything we need to do.” This is not just about freeing up new airwaves but using the existing ones more efficiently. “We should look at spectrum policies, to make sure spectrum is used as efficiently as possible,’ he said, pointing to secondary licensing and software defined devices. In the latter area, he pledged to support larger and longer term R&D programs.