WASHINGTON-The United States will enter the World Radiocommunication Conference in Istanbul next month without global or even regional support for its multiband proposal on third-generation mobile-phone service.
The situation is embarrassing for the Clinton administration because it could lead to the United States being isolated by Europe and Asia in the commercial rollout of Internet-ready 3G wireless systems several years from now.
Any chance of heading into WRC-2000 (May 8-June 2) with leverage on 3G global spectrum harmonization evaporated when U.S. negotiators failed to secure support for their proposal at a meeting in Mar del Plata, Argentina, last month.
The CITEL (Comision Interamericana de Telecommunicaciones) conference was attended by regulators and industry officials from North America, Central America and South America.
As such, the United States faces an uphill battle going into WRC-2000.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” said Cecily Cohen, manager of government and industry affairs for Nokia Corp.
Cohen noted opposition to the U.S. 3G spectrum plan is not uniform, and in some cases is bogged down in highly bureaucratic procedural differences.
Having failed to attract support for the multiband 3G spectrum proposal last month, U.S. negotiators are expected to seek bilateral discussions with various countries in hopes of patching together a coalition capable of exerting influence in Turkey.
The Clinton administration, pressed by U.S. wireless carriers and manufacturers, is seeking international support for a plan that identifies the additional spectrum in the 698 MHz-960 MHz, 1710 MHz-1885 MHz and 2500 MHz-2690 MHz bands for 3G.
The U.S. wireless industry believes a multiband 3G spectrum scheme will foster global roaming and lower costs for wireless firms and consumers alike.
CITEL favors identifying a single band-1710-1850 MHz-for 3G.
There is suspicion within the U.S. government that opposition-at least from Europe-to the administration’s 3G spectrum plan is competitively driven and designed to get Asian support in a way that isolates the United States. Such an outcome could dampen great expectations in the United States for a vibrant wireless data market in the future.
The plan put forward by the administration, which until recently was cool to the industry-backed plan to earmark several frequency bands specifically for 3G, is not only at odds with Europe and Asia. The U.S. 3G spectrum proposal also lacks support within the United States and within its own region of North America, Central America and South America.
Though 3G mobile phone service is in the long-term business plans of MCI WorldCom Inc. and Sprint Corp., which are seeking regulatory approvals to merge, both long-distance giants have a total of $2 billion invested in 2 GHz fixed-wireless licenses that cover 54 million people. MCI WorldCom has begun testing its fixed-wireless technology.
Moreover, the Pentagon, which has lost spectrum to the private sector in recent years, is not enamored with the prospect of seeing more of its spectrum compromised or lost to 3G mobile phones.
North of the border, Canadian Minister of Industry John Manley late last month awarded 12 of 13 fixed wireless licenses in the 2.5 GHz band to Inukshuk, a partnership of Microcell Telecommunications Inc. and Look Communications Inc. Inukshuk will use the licenses, which cover 29 million Canadians, to provide high-speed, broadband Internet access over a wireless platform.
But the U.S. mobile-phone industry wants the 2.5 GHz band for 3G.
With domestic and international opposition to its 3G spectrum approach, Ambassador Gail Schoettler, head of the U.S. delegation, avoided a complete meltdown on the 3G spectrum issue by getting key stakeholders to agree to consider a multiband 3G approach pending the outcome of spectrum interference and sharing studies.
But there is concern that uncertainty about who is conducting the studies and the timetable for their competition will hurt the U.S. mobile-phone industry if the matter is left in limbo. Schoettler was unavailable for comment.
