Deborah D. McAdams / 10.13.2011 12:00AM
Battle for Control of Airwaves Intensifies
Opinions on a spectrum shortage differ
WASHINGTON: The broadcast and
wireless lobbies briefly played nice this week to jointly oppose new spectrum
fees, but the battle to control the airwaves waged on in the background. A
consultant to the wireless industry today released a “counter
analysis” to recently released Citigroup research refuting a spectrum
shortage.
“Relative to my own analysis, the spectral-efficiency values used in
the Citi report are incorrect to a significant degree, and hence much of the
technical analysis and related conclusions are also incorrect,” wrote
Peter Rysavy of Rysavy Research, a Hood River, Ore.-based wireless consultancy.
“In particular, the bottom line conclusion that Citi arrives at
‘We do not believe the U.S. faces a spectrum shortage’ is
invalid because it is predicated on the incorrect analysis that 4G technologies
have six times more capacity than they really do.”
The Citi research
said that if all the spectrum now licensed by wireless carriers were converted
to newer, IP-based 4G technology, it could support 5 Mbps at 10 percent
simultaneous usage. Rysavy
said the figure would actually be less than 1 Mbps--and less efficient than older
3G technology--based on the model City used.
Rysavy said Citi’s analysis assumes that 4G technology is 400 percent
more efficient than 3G, when indeed he said it’s only 50 percent more
efficient. The International Telecommunications Union requires 3G to provide
peak downloads speeds of at least 200 kbps, and 4G to provide at least 100
Mbps, but no 4G services have met that criteria.
Rysavy said his consultancy had published 12 spectrum-efficiency analyses since
2002, the most recent being last month, in cooperation with companies
represented on the 4G Americas board of governors. The 4G
board of governors includes executives from AT&T, T-Mobile
and Qualcomm, among others.
The Citigroup analysts also noted that U.S. wireless carriers today have
spectrum licenses comprising 538 MHz, but that they’re using only 192
MHz. Yet the wireless industry’s mantra is that a “looming
spectrum crises” will constrain future broadband deployment. The
Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Plan is
predicated in part on this assumption, and calls for reassigning 40 percent of
the TV spectrum to wireless providers.
The National Association of Broadcasters jumped on the Citi report. NAB chief
Gordon Smith fired off a letter citing it to members of the supercommittee Oct.
5.
“Citigroup’s analysis suggests that ‘spectrum
crises’ claims that have been manufactured by the wireless and
consumer electronics industries--and advanced by the FCC--simply do not
withstand scrutiny,” Smith wrote.
He urged lawmakers to fully vet shortage claims before authorizing the
reassignment of TV spectrum. The NAB also papered Capitol Hill with ads
featuring the Citigroup research quote about the U.S. not facing a spectrum
shortage.
The Consumer Electronics Association and CTIA-The Wireless Association,
predictably fumed and spit. The CEA’s Michael Petricone said the
“NAB’s desperate and fanciful assertion that there is no
spectrum crisis runs contrary to physics and facts.”
The CTIA’s Jot Carpenter said, “The NAB has consistently
misrepresented the facts, with their efforts becoming more desperate as time
goes on. The looming spectrum crisis is a fact.”
Amid the war of words, the supercommittee was said to be considering individual
elements of the president’s stalled jobs bill, including $4 billion
in new spectrum fees over the next decade. The NAB and the CTIA stopped kicking
sand at each other long enough to wail, “noooo,” new
spectrum fees. Both were co-signatories on an Oct. 12 letter to supercommittee
members opposing such fees. They were joined by the National Religious
Broadcasters, the Satellite Industry Association and PCIA-The Wireless
Infrastructure Foundation.
“We are acutely mindful of the economic challenges confronting
Congress and the country,” they wrote. “We do not believe,
however, that the solution to unemployment lies in the imposition of new fees
and taxes that will inevitably shift money from much needed capital investment
in state-of-the-art communications technologies critical to the health of the
American economy.”
Nearly every year, spectrum fees are proposed and ultimately abandoned, but
Congress needs money like never before to give itself raises. If lawmakers
don’t pursue spectrum fees, they are likely to pursue incentive
auction authority. The FCC can’t just kick broadcasters off the
airwaves under current statute. Thus, the plan is to offer broadcasters who
voluntarily hand over spectrum a split of the subsequent auction proceeds. The
commission can’t do that without Congressional authority.
The
Hill reported this week that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.),
the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is recommending
auction authority be adopted in the supercommittee’s deficit
reduction plan.
~ Deborah D. McAdams, Television Broadcast