Clinton Leaves 3G Legacy

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
— Alan Kay

by Patricia Fusco
Associate Editor, ISP-Planet
[October 18, 2000]

Late last week the Federal Communications Commission reallocated 50 megahertz of the government's wireless spectrum to commercial communications providers.

The Commission plans to license the relinquished 3650-3700 megahertz band to Fixed Satellite Services for earth station operations. Federal regulators figure that the allocation will facilitate the deployment of traditional voice services, as well as broadband, data, and video feeds.

Bridging the wireless divide
The FCC also anticipates that the reclassified spectrum will help introduce wireless services to rural parts of the US — in accordance with its mandate from Section 706 in the 1996 Telecom Act requiring that the agency "facilitate the rapid deployment of advanced telecommunications services and technologies to all Americans."

Additionally, the Commission speculated that deploying fixed wireless and mobile terrestrial communication services over the 3650-3700 MHz band would spawn competition with existing wireline communication providers. As a result, copper and coax broadband firms might step-up their efforts to develop local-loop solutions for delivering broadband services to rural America before wireless companies blast past remote last-mile delivery barriers.

Finally, the FCC also said it would also allow FSS earth station operations to move into the liberated spectrum on a secondary basis. The ruling could help alleviate congestion on the adjacent 3700-4200 MHz spectrum currently inhabited by microwave systems operating on the C-band.

In order to develop compatible use of the spectrum between terrestrial and satellite services operating in the band, the FCC is limiting terrestrial mobile service providers to using the airwaves for base station operations only.

The FCC's new cyberspace, outer space jurisdiction
Does the FCC possess the regulatory power to reorganize the nation's finite spectrum supply willy-nilly? Do the revised rulings signal a new approach to managing US airwaves? Is the Commission asserting authority to reallocate spectrum by decree?

The Clinton Administration answered these questions with a stalwart "yes" on both counts, one day after the FCC announced the new spectrum assignment.

President Clinton issued and austere memorandum ordering that federal departments and agencies work in harmony with industry leaders to build third-generation wireless systems nationwide by July 2001.

To this end, Clinton said, "Federal agencies and the private sector must work together to determine what spectrum could be made available for third generation wireless systems."

The official White House statement noted that the "United States and the rest of the world are on the verge of a new generation of personal mobile communications, as wireless phones become portable high-speed Internet connections."

Conceivably the Administration's comments were crafted to energize US communication providers efforts to catch up with and surpass European and Asian second-generation wireless systems.

Winning the worldwide mobile wireless telecoms race
Industry analysts agree that Europe and specifically, Japan are 18 to 24 months ahead of the US in the consumer use and commercial deployment of 2G wireless goods and services. Naturally, it follows that Europe and Japan's wireless systems are also beating US rivals to the 3G finish line.

Clinton's memo essentially ordered that federal authorities "move quickly and purposefully" to foster 3G advancements so that consumers, industry, and government agencies may reap all the benefits of broadband wireless communications.

Perhaps akin to Al Gore's patriarchal claim to siring the Internet, the White House declared that the federal government has "always played a crucial role in the development of wireless services."

Granted, Clinton was president when the FCC reassigned government owned radio frequencies for commercial use in the development of PCS networks, but that is the extent of the Administration's claim to wireless fame.

World War II is the mother of wireless technology
Historically speaking, the federal government launched its wireless communications initiative in response to a communication crisis experienced by the Defense Department during World War II.

War making is the mother of wireless inventions, not elected representatives claiming visionary prowess after the fact.

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