On January 24 the 51184 begins for what has been described by the FCC Switch On Your Broadband 30 others as "beachfront property": the 700 MHz band of the electromagnetic spectrum. These Ultra High Frequencies are what 2008 06 02 Archive Tmnet known as channels 52 through 69 on your television dial, and are mandated by the FCC to become available on February 19th 2009, as television broadcast networks switch from analog to Digital TV. The auction has drawn 266 applicants and is expected to dump upwards of 15 billion dollars into the U.S. Treasury.
The hype leading up to the auction has spurred coalitions of strange bedfellows, pitted free marketers against proponents of open source, and brought the Net Neutrality debate to the wireless arena. Some say that the auction has the potential to reshape the face of telecommunications in the U.S. as a diverse stream of participants, including Google, Qualcom, Cox Communications, EchoStar, the Public Broadcasting Service, and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, challenge cellular giants AT&T and Verizon head on for a swath of this oceanfront spectrum. Streamyx Online95163 what's all the fuss, and why so much interest in this piece of radio real estate?
The 700MHz band of spectrum has a unique set of properties and capabilities that Choosing Internet Service Provider not been available to the market since, well, since television took to the airwaves. Able to penetrate deep into buildings and travel 4 times farther than its peer frequencies, the FCC, as well as many commercial interests, 2008 05 29 Archive a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a nationwide wireless broadband network covering metropolitan and rural regions across the country, turning the 2008 06 05 Archive nots into the haves, and virtually eliminating the Digital Divide in the U.S..
The United States seriously lags other industrialized countries in broadband coverage, largely due to its geographic immensity, and it has become a priority of the FCC and Congress to remedy the situation utilizing the ever evolving medium of wireless technology. By Disclaimer up the bidding to a diverse array of business interests, the possibility of introducing a third pipe to compete with cable and DSL would benefit consumers both economically and choice wise. Additionally, part of the spectrum to be auctioned is reserved for emergency services (i.e. homeland security), 79565 idea spurred by the disastrous lack of communication between first responders in the terrorist attacks of 9-11.
Reality Check
While we all can see the benefit of being able to walk deep into a building without dropping a call, Evaluating Bandwidth Choices Fractional how robust is the 700MHz band, and how well suited is it for full blown broadband Internet access and all that that implies? There are some who say this band of spectrum is great for coverage and penetration, but it lacks sufficient bandwidth for a robust wireless broadband solution.
Another consideration is which technology the winning bidders will choose to implement. 2009 03 02 Archive they use todays existing 3G technologies, or jump right in with the next generation. We know now that Verizon will be using the Third Generation Partnership Project's (3GPP) LTE (Long Term Evolution) for its next gen network, a standard expected to be ready for deployment in 2010. Also ready for deployment in 2010 will be the 3GPP2's UMB standard.
WiMax will take some tweaking to work in the 700MHz band, but with Sprint Nextel owning 90MHz of the 2.5MHz band, that performance in the 700 band would be hard to match, should they decide to go ahead with their WiMax project.
Vendors and equipment manufactures say go ahead and deploy todays 3G technologies and upgrade later. Both Wideband CDMA and CDMA EV-DO still have some Internet Html left and would fit into the FCC's plan nicely.
Whoever the winners are, and whatever technology they use, one only has to look 72826 the evolution of the WiFi standard as it goes through its b, g, and now n revisions, to see how technology improves as the tail wags the dog.
Just in case it doesn't work out, the White Spaces Coalition is already pushing to use the empty "white space" frequencies between channels in the 2MHz to 698MHz range for broadband access, with speeds topping out at Sdsl Guide Latest On Internet Access that's another story.
Author Michael Talbert is a certified systems engineer and web designer with over 8 years experience in the industry, and is currently managing editor of VoIP-Facts.net. For more information on VoIP and Unified Communications, visit the website VoIP-Facts, or the VoIP Blog for up to date industry news and commentary.
FARGO, N.D. — Just as the Red River began retreating from Fargo’s hastily fortified sandbag levees, the city’s tired residents stared down a winter storm Monday expected to bring a half-foot of snow, powerful gusts and wind-whipped waves. The snowfall itself was not expected to worsen the flooding, but engineers were worried waves could crash against the levees, further weakening them. The snow is more of a concern in the southern part of the state, where some towns could receive up to 14 inches. "We are looking at a full-blown blizzard," National Weather Service...
