Decision Time: Does the Nation Need TV or Mobile Broadband? [GigaOM]
According to GigaOM, there may be a fight brewing over the future of a significant portion of the current broadcast television spectrum between broadcasters and wireless phone carriers, pitting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the referee. The wireless industry's trade association CTIA filed a report with the FCC last week requesting that the Commission release 800 MHz of spectrum to satisfy future needs for mobile data - which are expected to grow by a factor of 66 between 2008 and 2013, based on an estimate from Cisco. Driving this spectrum need are the growing number of mobile phones that feature full web browsers and the ability to record and upload video.
As it turns out, there isn't 800 MHz of spectrum sitting on the shelf that the FCC can simply auction to the highest bidders among the wireless carriers. Spectrum is a finite resource, and in this case it's occupied by broadcast television channels.
While this is a similar issue to the current white-space debate, it's different from the standpoint that satisfying the demands of the wireless industry will necessitate a wholesale reallocation of spectrum. With proposed white-space devices, spectrum hopping is employed - the devices look for unoccupied spots in the space between channels in the broadcast spectrum. While it has yet to be perfected in practice, in theory white space mobile broadband might coexist with television broadcasts in the same spectrum range.
As GigaOM suggests, I agree that this debate will reach the halls of Congress before it is resolved. Broadcasters don't want to give up spectrum, but growing wireless data demand isn't likely to be resolved using existing spectrum.
Comments