LAS VEGAS-Spectrum issues were at the forefront of discussions during the opening keynote speech at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association’s Wireless 2001 show in Las Vegas Tuesday. Highlighting the industry’s spectrum woes were CTIA president Thomas Wheeler, CTIA Chairman and Voice-Stream Wireless Corp. Chief Executive Officer John Stanton and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell.
The session began with both Wheeler and Stanton reiterating the association’s position that the United States’ lack of sound spectrum policy has seen the country fall behind the rest of the world in the amount of spectrum set aside for the wireless communications industry. Littered among the duo’s hype of next generation wireless services, were plenty of shots at the U.S. government’s lack of action on the issue.
Included in the complaints were taxes on wireless services being used to subsidize wireline monopolies and spectrum policy leaving U.S. carriers with half as much spectrum as foreign carriers and total wireless spectrum set aside for communications trailing the United Kingdom, Japan and France.
“We’re running out of electronic concrete, we’re running out of spectrum,” Stanton stressed. “In many markets spectrum is simply not available for companies to offer new technologies.”
Stanton compared the spectrum crunch to the recent power shortages in California, which have forced many companies to look to other states for possible relocation.
After laying out the needs of the wireless industry to a partisan crowd, Wheeler welcomed Powell to answer poignant questions about the new administration’s plans for wireless spectrum.
“Spectrum becomes an increasing challenge and I think the country needs to spend time developing a coherent, nationally harmonized spectrum policy,” Powell explained. “Government has a duty and obligation to re-evaluate and re-examine the situation.”
Powell said the government was currently in “no man’s land on the tennis court” on spectrum policy, noting it needed to pick up its game and “rush the net.”
When asked about the pending conflict with the Department of Defense over the use of possible spectrum, Powell said the FCC lacked the influence in DOD spectrum issues to push for a policy.
Powell also answered questions regarding privacy issues and location-based services, noting much needed to be done to find a compromise; numbering issues; and the commission’s backlog of handset approvals for carriers.
Wheeler and Stanton also tackled lighter issues during the keynote, showing off next-generation services with a moving demonstration. With Stanton holding down the stage, Wheeler ran outside to a waiting Ericsson van with a Wideband-CDMA wireless video connection to a handheld computer set up on stage. The van proceeded to circle the convention center while Wheeler continued to give a real-time video demonstration at download speeds approaching 300 kilobits per second. While Wheeler’s words did not match perfectly with his lip movement, the presentation showed the potential of higher speeds wireless connections.
Wheeler also set up a download competition between 3G wireless connections and wired Internet access connections. The first involved a typical 56K modem vs. a cdma2000 1x connection at 144 kbps. While the 56K computer took an early lead in downloading a colorful picture onto a laptop computer, the wireless connection saved embarrassing Wheeler by storming back to easily best its wired competition.
Even more telling was the next demonstration between a digital subscriber line and a cdma2000 1x EV wireless set up. While both downloaded the picture nearly instantaneously, the wireless connection just eked out the victory to sweep the competition for the untethered folks.
