WCA Conference Notebook... ...

Broadband wireless in the 2.5 GHz band would be held back by the FCC’s limiting to 15 years license terms for Broadband Radio Service and Educational Broadband Service, service providers indicated to a Wireless Communications Assn. conference in San Jose last week. The restriction would be bad news for Sprint Nextel, which plans “a sizable commitment” in the band and would face competitors like Verizon without similar constraints in their bands, said Paul McCarthy, Sprint’s licensee relations dir. Other matters that will affect how quickly the 2.5 GHz band is used effectively are creation of transition rules to remove impediments, auctioning whitespace, and “substantial service” requirements, he said. The pace of advance will be determined especially by how quickly “speculators” among license holders are removed from the spectrum, McCarthy said. But “you can deploy now, and we're going to do that,” he said: “Now is the time to compete with EVDO.” Other regulatory matters cited as affecting how quickly broadband wireless flourishes are whether Commercial Mobile Radio Service is classed as provision of pure information service; conditions of VoIP provision; CALEA, E-911 and universal service fund requirements; terms of access to the public switched phone network; and network neutrality. Clearwire supports net neutrality and believe it applies here, but “there’s a traffic management issue that allows you to guarantee your customers quality of service,” said Gerard Salemme, Clearwire exec. vp-strategy, policy & external affairs. It’s “not as simple as saying we're in favor of letting other people use our network,” he said. A Dec. agreement for Sprint to swap smaller-market 2.5 GHz licenses for large-market licenses from Clearwire foreshadow more such deals, executives of the companies said. “We both have a common interest in maximizing the value of that spectrum and its efficiency,” Salemme said. They also agreed mobility is central to the success of services in the band. Clearwire will start deploying the capability “in the very near term,” Salemme said. “The very, very near term.”