Motorola chief calls for spectrum
rebates
By Rick Merritt
EE Times
(03/21/01, 3:56 p.m. EST)
LAS VEGAS — The U.S. government should provide
an immediate and significant rebate to carriers who
have purchased cellular spectrum, and the global
process of spectrum management needs to be
revamped to help pave the way to third-generation
(3G) cellular services. That was the opinion
expressed in a keynote talk by Christopher Galvin,
chief executive of Motorola Inc., at the CTIA
Wireless 2001 show today (March 21).
"We recommend that, just like the president is
considering significant tax relief, upwards of half
the funds provided for purchasing spectrum be
returned to the carriers," Galvin said.
The billions spent in recent spectrum auctions
should instead be spent on buying equipment to roll
out new services, a move that would benefit consumers, Galvin
added. "How we make spectrum available determines how much
capital is available for further innovation," he said.
Galvin went so far as to suggest spectrum might be given away free,
as the U.S. government gave right-of-way to railroad operators,
which paved the way for their rapid growth and benefited the overall
economy.
Beyond the immediate rebate, Galvin called for a worldwide
reexamination of how spectrum is made available to industry, saying
that "any time there's an opportunity to innovate, rules and
regulations need to be modified.
"The European Union has already called for a discussion of this, and
there are professors creating think tanks to debate this," Galvin said,
noting that the Federal Communications Commission and global PTTs
need to join the discussion.
"We need to have a plan for how we are going to manage spectrum
long-term, and that includes a set of rules for how we promote
innovation and bring out the next generation of applications rather
than just transferring money to government," he added.
Jorma Ollila, chairman and chief executive of Nokia Corp., agreed with
Galvin, speaking from Finland via satellite to the crowd at the CTIA
Wireless 2001 show here.
"Chris [Galvin] has some very well-thought-out ideas. A European
Union paper yesterday expressed concern that the development of
the last 30 years here might not continue if we cannot put into place
a mechanism where spectrum is available at a reasonable cost," Ollila
said.
The talk of spectrum rebates and reengineering comes as the
economic slowdown has hit the fast-growing cellular industry, though
some here deny its impact.
"One million feet of exhibit space and record attendance [at the
show] does not represent a slowdown," said Thomas E. Wheeler,
president and chief executive officer of the Cellular
Telecommunications and Internet Association, who moderated the
keynotes. "What we have seen here is that the wireless, computer
and Internet industries are all coming together, and that's what is
driving this business."
For his part, Ollila of Nokia estimated that the $330 billion in estimated
wireless carrier revenues will triple in five years. However, he said,
carriers will increasingly turn to systems makers like Nokia to share the
risk of rolling out new systems and services. "There will be increasingly
deep partnerships between vendors and carriers, because the capital
needed is high and the time duration of the investment is long," Olilla
said.
According to Don Listwin, chief executive of software provider
Openwave Systems Inc. and a longtime communications industry
veteran, the current slowdown in the cellular industry is serious. "The
industry here is in a crisis and we need to get another business cycle
started."
In the keynotes, both Galvin and Ollila expressed confidence that the
next level of cellular systems based on General Packet Radio Service
technology, a so-called 2.5 generation service, will roll out this year.
"Our timetable has been all along that we plan to roll out GPRS
handsets in the third quarter of this year with significant volumes in
the tens of millions of them available in the fourth quarter. GPRS will
be significant by the fourth quarter of this year and will lead us to 3G
late in 2002, so I think the timetable is set," Ollila said.
Galvin agreed, noting that Motorola is already shipping a
GPRS-capable handset. |
