PRESS RELEASE: New Paper Concludes Wholesale Access LicensingEssential to Wireless Competition]

[Kevin Purcell]

Talking points to get a conversation going:

1. The “no-retail” and “no locking and no blocking” rules: A  
different model for ownership (as the cited paper points out). Get  
the "track owner" out of the retail business. Prevent the track owner  
from locking in (or out) devices on "their" network. Or locking out  
protocols. Is that true for your hot-picks?

2. 700MHz Not owned by an incumbent. Better still no owned by anyone  
with a cellphone worldview. Note that the Finns have already done  
this (at 450MHz) with a 2Mbps open access network run by Digita Oy  
(see the overview link below).

3. Different propagation effects -- 700MHz is going to propagate  
through walls/vegetation/rain/snow better than 2.5GHz or 3.6GHz.

4. How big the cells are going to be? The FCC application from MSFT  
seemed to imply small cells. Or perhaps that was just for the test?  
700Mhz does have a capability for big cells but I doubt you'll see  
any 1000 sq mile cells (as Malik seems to think). Will reuse work  
well in cities?

5. Total bandwidth per cell at 2 bits/Hz will be around 20mbps (in a  
D block)? Is the win here a lower-cost mobile IP service with OK/low  
bandwidth rather than the higher bandwidths (but with more lockin of  
the other systems mentioned below).

Reading (any other links welcome)

<http://www.edn.com/article/CA6429725.html>
<http://www.wcai.com/pdf/2007/700_mar2.pdf> Overview
<http://www.wcai.com/pdf/2007/fcc_mar6.pdf> Google/Intel

<http://arstechnica.com/search.ars?Tag=700mhz>

Om Malik's blogging
<http://gigaom.com/2007/04/06/inside-the-700-mhz-spectrum-land-grab/>
<http://gigaom.com/2007/03/14/700mhz-explained/>
<http://gigaom.com/2007/03/09/google-ebay-yahoo-700mhz/#comments>

On Jul 24, 2007, at 2:38 PM, Tyler van Houwelingen wrote:

> I really dont see why people believe that 700Mhz is all that  
> important.
> Sure you will get great coverage quickly, but I dont see anything  
> better
> than 1-2Mbps max to clients given the slivers of spectrum and WAN
> architectures planned.   I like 2.5GHz (ala clearwire/sprint) or  
> the 3.6GHz
> band deployed with WiMAX picocells much, much more...
>
> ty
--
73 DE N7WIM / G8UDP
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com