3G-wireless debate shifts to spectrum
management
George Leopold
Washington - The U.S. wireless industry and the government
agencies that oversee it are gearing up for battle with European
rivals over the technical outlines of a future data-driven
communications network.
While most of the attention paid to third-generation wireless
(3G) systems has focused on a standards dispute (see June 8,
page 8), industry and government planners are also addressing
critical spectrum requirements for terrestrial and satellite
systems out to 2010. The prevailing view at a 3G conference
here last week was that 230 MHz of spectrum around the
2-GHz band allocated for 3G services in the United States
won't be enough.
Industry and government agencies responsible for spectrum
management are scrambling to determine how much more
spectrum will be needed and where it will come from before a
November meeting of a technical group of the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU, Geneva). One problem, U.S.
officials said, is that spectrum allocated by European
regulators for 3G services has been claimed in the United
States by the Defense Department and NASA.
Federal agencies are expected to play a key role in sorting out
spectrum disputes and negotiating agreements with other ITU
members to create the global wireless network 3G proponents
envision. "The debate involv-ing use of the spectrum should be
coordinated by the government," said Vonya McCann, U.S.
coordinator and deputy assistant secretary of state for
international communications and information policy.
Along with standards setting, McCann said, industry's role in
the 3G-spectrum debate should be defining spectrum needs.
That data will eventually be used in sorting out conflicting
government and industry claims for additional spectrum.
As the spectrum debate heats up, European Union members
continue to push for adoption of the follow-on to the Global
System for Mobile (GSM) communications as a single
international standard that would permit global roaming. But
some U.S. competitors-led by Qualcomm Inc. (San Diego),
developer of rival code-division multiple-access (CDMA)
technology-insist they would effectively be locked out of most
of the European market if the next-generation European
protocol (a version of CDMA called wideband-CDMA)
becomes the 3G standard.
The stakes are high in the 3G spectrum and standards debates.
Industry forecasts project there will be as many as 500 million
wireless subscribers around the world by 2000. The winner of
the U.S./European wireless contest is expected to dominate
emerging global markets in which wireless-network growth
outpaces that for land-line nets.
According to the Personal Communications Industry
Association (Alexandria, Va.), which sponsored the
conference, high-speed data is expected to account for 70
percent of wireless-network traffic by 2005.
FCC seeks comment
To frame the international spectrum debate, the Federal
Communications Commission released a notice on Aug. 26
seeking industry comment on 3G-spectrum requirements. The
notice was prompted in part by the ITU's decision to consider
whether additional spectrum beyond the 230 MHz already
allocated is needed to launch the new wireless service. U.S.
proponents of the service say they may need as much as 499
MHz by 2010 for terrestrial 3G wireless and existing wireless
services.
Other FCC concerns focus on spectrum for 3G services that
overlap current U.S. PCS systems. The notice "is intended not
only to broaden the [spectrum] debate but also to help create a
record on which the U.S. government can begin to form its
positions" for the 2000 World Radiocommunications
Conference, said Richard Engelman, planning and negotiations
chief at the FCC's International Bureau.
Industry officials at the conference called for unity as the U.S.
negotiating positions are developed. "What is needed is a
much more proactive role by the government, namely the
FCC," said Leonard Kolsky, vice president for global
telecommunications at Motorola Inc.
Observers said the debate's likely outcome is European
approval of a single standard based on GSM and multiple U.S.
standards centering on CDMA technology. That may not spell
defeat for U.S. manufacturers, the State Department's McCann
said. "The technology is clearly there to [develop and
manufacture] dual-mode handsets," she said.
Software technology could also offer a solution to the
spectrum debate. Most service and equipment providers want
contiguous bands of spectrum for their 3G operations. An
official with a U.S. agency charged with managing spectrum
said meeting industry demands for global, contiguous
spectrum will be "pretty close to impossible."
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