Don't touch

Vendors, service providers and educators with ITFS/MMDS spectrum — located at 2.1 GHz and in the 2.5 GHz to 27 GHz band — want the U.S. government to go away.

The FCC could reallocate instructional television fixed service/multichannel multipoint distribution service spectrum for 3G wireless services. That's an anathema to educators just starting to deliver interactive services via ITFS channels and to the still-nascent commercial MMDS industry, a point made repeatedly during last week's Wireless Communications Association annual convention in Boston.

“It's an important thing for us,” said Monsignor Michael Dempsey, president of the Catholic Television Network — an association of 16 ITFS stations. “We need two-way infrastructure. Take this off the table.”

FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy, keynoting the first day's activities, encouraged attendees by implying opposition to the spectrum reallocation.

“I was saying we do need spectrum for 3G — that's not off the table — but as I look at the realm of alternatives… this is certainly at the bottom, the least desirable from a technology perspective,” she said.

But those with spectrum remained wary because the other spectrum alternative belongs to the Department of Defense.

Eventually, President Bush — who ran on a pro-defense/pro-education platform — may have to decide, said Henry Rivera, a former FCC commissioner and partner in the law firm of Partner, Shook, Hardy & Bacon.

“We've always known this was going to be a political decision made at the very highest levels,” he said, adding a congressional decision could be worse. “It's a jungle up there.”

Commercial players also bristle at the notion after spending billions to secure the spectrum in auctions.

Joe Brooks, vice president of sales and market development for WorldCom's Broadband Solutions, said that the spectrum uncertainty has not slowed WorldCom's rollouts — a sentiment echoed by Sprint — but it has impacted vendors that are reticent to build MMDS products. “In particular, the small equipment vendors have… taken a wait-and-see attitude as to what's going to happen with the spectrum before they fully deploy their capital,” he said.

Jay Keithley, vice president of federal regulatory affairs for Sprint, noted that most of the world is going to the DOD spectrum for 3G anyway. “Using our spectrum, using 2.5 [GHz] for 3G in the U.S., would make us an island in a sea of 1.7 [GHz international] 3G consumers,” he said.

Michael Binder, Industry Canada's assistant deputy minister for spectrum information and telecommunications, reinforced this by saying his country is committed to the lower spectrum.

“We're waiting for you to make a decision,” he said. “You've got to pick the band.”