I Thought YOu Had No Alternatives for Broadband?
Brett Glass
One of the most common claims made by proponents of government regulation of the Internet (AKA “network neutrality”) is that it is necessary because broadband is a duopoly. At best, these people claim, most US residents have a choice between the telephone company and the cable company; that’s it. Enter wireless consultant Brian Webster, who has embarked upon a project to compile a map showing the coverage of terrestrial, fixed wireless Internet providers (WISPs) throughout the United States. The results so far can be found at http://www.wirelessmapping.com/WISP%20National%20Map.png, and they’re quite impressive: more than 750,000 square miles covered, including every “NFL city” and quite a few places that have neither cable nor DSL. And the map currently includes the coverage areas of only about 1/3 of all WISPs. Which begs the questions: Why are WISPs ignored in the current stimulus legislation (which is written as if cell phone companies were the only providers of wireless broadband)? And why hasn’t Congress or the FCC allocated spectrum for such service? (Most WISPs operate on the Part 15 unlicensed bands, where interference from even the most mundane consumer devices is a constant challenge and limits the range of service.)
Perhaps Congress, as part of the economic stimulus, should consider renaming the AWS-3 band — 25 MHz of spectrum which would be excellent for this purpose — the “Broadband Stimulus Band” and instructing the FCC to license it, non-exclusively, to those wireless broadband providers who have no exclusively licensed spectrum to call their own. To ensure that the spectrum can be shared among multiple providers in a given area, the rules could divide the band into 5 MHz channels, and require that the 802.11y spectrum sharing protocol be used to ensure that even fierce competitors won’t intentionally step on one another. This wouldn’t require a penny from the public treasury, but might accomplish more than the $9 billion stimulus now pending in Congress. In fact, it might just turn the entire map yellow….
bennett.com/blog/2009/02/thought-you-had-no-alternatives-for-broadband/