BuddeBlog

Congress asks FCC to explain D-block spectrum failure

At a hearing of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee and only a few weeks after the widely acknowledged success of the advanced wireless spectrum auction, all five members of the FCC appeared before Congress to defend the rules surrounding the public safety D-block spectrum that was auctioned, and to explain why the block failed to attract anything beyond an opening bid.

The chairman of the commission was criticised by Republican members of the House panel for imposing conditions stipulating that the winning bidder, in partnership with the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST), fund the build-out of a public safety network. It was suggested that in all likelihood these conditions decreased the value of what would otherwise have been a valuable government commodity.

The FCC defended their decision by claiming that without an enforced private-public partnership there would not be sufficient funds to build the proposed public safety network. In doing so the FCC also blamed Congress for its failure to allocate enough federal funding for the project, thus forcing the FCC to adopt the D-block rules.

When questions were asked about what the FCC intended to do with the as yet unsold spectrum, the FCC chairman said he believed a public-private partnership was still the best option available. Some Republican members of the House committee, however, said they believed the D-block spectrum should be sold to the commercial wireless industry, and that a portion of the proceeds from the sale should then be given directly to the public safety sector. This suggestion was, however, met with disapproval from the chairman of the overarching House Commerce Committee.

Democratic lawmakers also expressed their disappointed that the large incumbent wireless telcos were the big winners in the auction, rather than a new entrant as was hoped.

See also: USA – Broadband Market – Wireless Broadband.

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Canadian WiMAX operator on US horizon

Canadian wireless broadband operator Craig Wireless has selected Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent to build a new WiMAX network in Palm Springs, California. Alcatel-Lucent will provide an end-to-end WiMAX network solution based on the IEE 802.16e-2005 (Rev-e) WiMAX standard, and will operate in the 2.5 GHz spectrum band. The vendor is also expected to provide base stations, wireless access controllers and an operation and maintenance centre (OMC).

Craig Wireless currently holds WiMAX spectrum in Canada, the US, Greece, Norway and New Zealand.

See also: USA – Broadband Market – Wireless Broadband.

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“Spoken Web”, currently being piloted by IBM’s India Research team, aims to transform how people create, build and interact with e-commerce sites on the World Wide Web using the spoken word instead of the written word. The Spoken Web is the World Wide Web in a telecom network, where people can host and browse “VoiceSites”, traverse “VoiceLinks”, even conduct business transactions, all just by talking over the existing telephone network.

For example, some people don’t require a PC, but they do need access to information such as:

• Fishermen need weather info before heading out to sea
• Farmers need to look up commodity prices
• Plumbers can schedule appointments, set up transfers to partners, use advertisements
• Grocery shops can display catalogues, offer order placement, display personalized targeted advertisements or reminders

Such locally relevant information is not available for a majority of world population. Computer literacy is not enough for most of the population because there is a need to know what to look for, how to access it and how to use it.

See also:

Technology – IP Techniques 8 – VoIP Applications, ENUM & Addressing

Technology – IP Techniques 9 – VoIP Protocols

Technology – IPv6 4 – Address Selection & Mobility

Technology – Web Development 6 – Webfeed, Podcasting & Client Side Scripting

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Cellular mobile networks have been built for voice services and even more importantly have been finetuned over the years for efficient and effective voice transmission. While both 2G and 3G allow, in principle, for a large range of mobile data services, these networks can never be optimised for that. Voice will remain the killer application for mobile with some data services included as support services and niche market services.

WiMAX and 4G are the real solutions for mobile data but by the time they will be available at mass market levers, it will be called wireless personal broadband.

Who will be the winner or will there be a winner? One thing is certain service and content providers will have to play a far more important role if we ever will be able to make this a successful market place. In this presentation we will briefly analyses the industry.

Paul Budde will present at the CeBIT BuddeComm Theatre at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, Sydney. CeBIT Australia 2008 takes place from 20-22 May 2008. For more info see:

http://www.budde.com.au/Conferences/other_conferences_details/CeBIT_Conference_-_BuddeComm_Presenting.aspx

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Actai Networks, a developer and operator of mobile phone solutions in Europe and Asia, recently launched a web-based telephone service, C2Call, which allows free browser-based international phone calls from Windows, Apple or Linux computers.

C2Call works on all platforms – a temporary Java widget is loaded into a web browser which supports Javascript, there’s no software to download, install or configure, no registration required, and it connects anyone with a headset connected to a PC.

Actai has plans to extend the service to landlines and mobile phones.

For more information see: http://www.c@call.com

See also:

• Global – Mobile Content & Services – 2008
• Global – Mobile Data – Mobile TV & Video Media
• Global – Mobile Data – Telemetry & RFID

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Infonetics Research has recently published a report on femtocell technology – Femtocell Access Points Market Size and Forecasts. Deployed within buildings, Femtocell access points boost GSM/GPRS, CDMA or 3G macrocellular signal coverage. Femtocell technology was launched in North America by Sprint in the first quarter of 2007, based on Samsung UbiCell femtocell.

The report found that femtocell access points serve the need of mobile operators in two key ways, firstly it’s a cheaper method to backhaul network traffic, and secondly it offers reliable coverage and reliable indoor Internet speeds.126

The report also found:

• Developing countries are a possible market for 2G femtocells as its offers cheaper mobile voice calls from dwellings.
• Mobile network operators could make significant investment reductions in conventional 3G networks and other networks such as DVB-H.
• Femtocell technology could also lower the rates of customer churn.
• Before femtocell technology can be successful there are some technical challenges to be faced, it lacks standarisation, and is an unproven business model.

See also:

• Technology – Mobile 8 – Fixed-Mobile Convergence, UMA, GAN & Femtocells
• Global – Mobile – Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC)

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ConnectMyTelevision.com is a free US online service which allows consumers to compare information on plans and rate charges of cable and satellite companies. Consumers can order television services online.

The service recommends DVRs for the following reasons:

• Consumers can watch programs when it suits them;
• TV shows are recorded on a hard drive so there’s no chance of over-taping a show and the quality of the recording is much higher than that of a recording on a VCR tape;
• Live shows can be paused, rewound, fast forwarded and replayed;
• Consumers can record up to three shows whilst watching another show.

For more information see: ConnectMyTelevision.com.

See also:

• Global – Digital Media – Digital Video Recorders (DVR)
• Global – Digital Media – Home Media Centres
• Global – Digital Media – Internet Media Companies
• Global – Digital Media – Online Video Media
• Global – Digital Media – The Media Industry
• Global – Digital Media – Triple Play Overview & Analyses
• Regional – Digital Media – Triple Play & IPTV – Africa, Middle East – 2007
• Regional – Digital Media – Triple Play & IPTV – Americas – 2007
• Regional – Digital Media – Triple Play & IPTV – Europe – 2007

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The comparison is disturbing.

New Zealand proposes to spend $1.5 billion on an investment in broadband infrastructure. This investment will take place after the country has made structural changes to its industry – and it all makes perfect sense.

Australia is trying to invest $4.7 billion on its broadband infrastructure but is struggling to work out how to invest this money, since there is great uncertainly surrounding the environment in which this investment will be made.

In the case of New Zealand there is a very good possibility that the taxpayers’ money will be spent responsibly, as all the companies utilising that infrastructure will be profiting equally from the investment.

In the case of Australia there is a good chance that the $4.7 billion will go straight to the bottom line of Telstra, a company that is already one of the most profitable telcos in the world. While we hear the Minister saying that it absolutely will not happen, on paper (the RFP) there is no guarantee that this doomsday scenario will not eventuate.

If the Minister ends up with only one potential winner in the RFP process it will be very difficult to negotiate a good outcome – he will have his back to the wall.

New Zealand is clearly showing the way here – get your house in order first, before you start throwing your money around.

In the end, implementing such an investment plan will be as difficult in New Zealand as it will be in Australia, but in New Zealand that investment will at least rest on a sound foundation.

Paul Budde

See also:

• Australia – Government’s National Broadband Plan
• Australia – FttH Special Interest Group
• Australia – Labor Government Policies – 2008
• Australia – Competition Issues – 2008
• Australia – Deregulation Process 1998 – 2008
• Australia – Operational Separation of Telstra
• New Zealand – Telecoms – Overview and Analysis – 2008
• New Zealand – Regulatory Environment – Telecommunications Act

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The Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments are jointly funding the enhancement of remote area emergency and health services in WA via a broadband development project.

The Bush Medivac WA project recently launched in Bunbury will bring improved services to regional and remote areas using state-of-art terrestrial and non terrestrial broadband networks.

Through the Clever Network program, the Australian Government is contributing $9.28 million and the WA Department of Industry and Resources and partners are funding $12 million.

See also:

Australia – Digital Media – E-health

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Net neutrality debate heats up in Canada

In an indication that the issue of net neutrality in Canada may become more prominent as demand for broadband services increases, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) has made a plea to the CRTC to order Bell Canada and its sister telco Bell Aliant to cease ‘throttling’ wholesale internet traffic.

The Bell companies have previously admitted to their wholesale ISP customers to engaging in the practice of limiting bandwidth for the transmission of certain types of online data, in particular applications such as peer-to-peer downloads during peak usage hours. The CAIP has called upon the CRTC to determine whether the practice is lawful or not.

See also: Canada – Broadband Market – Overview, Statistics & Forecasts.

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