CurrentAffairs
Telecom advancestalled, says expert
By Christian Bourge,
UPI Think Tank Correspondent
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- The next generationof cell phone technology holds large potential benefits for consumers,but government misallocation of the wireless spectrum threatensthose benefits in the United States, a telecommunications expertsaid recently.
Third generation cell phone technology --so-called 3G -- offers potential solutions to a number of marketand regulatory dilemmas currently faced by telecommunicationscompanies, Jerry A. Hausman, director of the telecommunicationseconomics research program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,said at the American Enterprise Institute last Tuesday.
"3G may solve the regulatory problemby offering both voice and broadband data, but we will need somecompelling applications, enough spectrum, and high-speed accessto broadband Internet," said Hausman, who is also a researchassociate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, an economics-centeredpublic policy think tank. "If these things come together... in five years we can shut down the FCC."
Hausman and others believe new technologiescould be the Holy Grail of telecommunications, because they cancombine a wireless phone and high-speed Internet communicationsinto a single handheld package.
New technology reportedly allows for seamless integration of Internetaccess, phone and a menu of additional possibilities affordedby having high-speed data communications, in a single device.
It offers a data transfer speed of up to384,000 bits a second, 200 times faster than current cell phonetechnology -- providing Internet connection rates as fast as DSLor cable modems, the two dominant hardwired Internet access technologies.
These faster Internet connection speedsallow for a host of new technological improvements to cell phones,including high-speed video and streaming audio that proponentscontend could make the cell phone the must-have device for allusers.
"Data uses of 3G are crucial for itseconomic success, because 3G offers only limited voice qualityimprovement over 2G networks," said Hausman. With new technologyin place, he said, "People will look at their mobile phoneas much as they hold it to their ear."
Hausman said this integration is "criticalto the evolution of technology for communications."
But there are software-development-related uncertainties thatneed to be solved to convince people to make the switch, he said.
Other problems also plague the future ofnext-generation cell phone technology in the United States. Forexample, though cell phone technology was invented in New Jerseyand has taken a prominent role in the American marketplace, theUnited States has fallen behind Japan and Europe in rolling outnew generations of cellular phones.
The Japanese cellular phone giant NTT DoCoMorecently deployed 3G technology to a so-far lukewarm response.Japanese consumers seem to be unwilling to spend money for thenew phones, which are somewhat clunky and cost more than twiceas much as the best second-generation models.
That's no reason not to pursue the new technology,however, Hausman said.
In Australia, France, Germany, England,Korea and other countries, he said, the technology is coming closerto reality, because spectrum rights for the frequencies that makethe new technology work have been auctioned off. In contrast,the United States has yet to take this step.
"The U.S. should really get its acttogether here because a number of countries -- pretty much everyrespectable country -- has been able to come up with spectrumfor 3G, including the French, who hate markets," said Hausman."We are seemingly unable to do this."
The FCC is scheduled to auction off spectrumlicensing in September to allow companies to begin to use partof the wireless band for the new technology.
One of the new technology's major hurdlesis that the United States uses the wireless spectrum inefficiently,Hausman said. There's a "contrived scarcity" of theusable spectrum available, mainly because local law enforcementoffices and other government offices use outdated analog equipment,he said.
If those offices upgraded their equipment,it would free up space in the spectrum for new cell phone technology,Hausman said. The federal government's spectrum allocation schemealso creates a shortage because it reserves for U.S. militaryapplications exactly the wide band of spectrum necessary for 3Guse.
Though critics like Hausman contend thatmore spectrum than necessary is allocated for military use, thePentagon says it would take more than simply switching to anotherband to make their current spectrum allocations available forcommercial use.
For instance, one of the technologies usedfor military communications involves a spectrum-hopping signalthat makes transmissions harder to detect, but at the same timerequires a much wider band of spectrum.
In addition, there are questions about spectrumoverload, and devices in one band of allocated spectrum bleedingover into neighboring frequencies. The effect is similar to whathappens when one receives competing radio stations in the samearea of the dial while tuning a car radio. For example, therehas been an ongoing debate about problems with signals from satellite-basedglobal positioning systems bleeding over into frequencies usedfor military communications.
Hausman proposed that the government auctionoff the full range of spectrum appropriate for 3G, and allow localmunicipalities, the military, and commercial interests to bidfor the spectrum they need.
In return for giving up the currently dedicatedportion of the wireless spectrum, he said these government agencieswould receive a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the spectrum.This money could be used to upgrade to digital equipment thatwould more efficiently use their new, smaller allocated band ofspectrum.