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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ftth who wrote (20152)	3/11/2007 6:17:57 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

ftth, There's enough there to claim my time for the rest of the day. Thanks ;) Here's another piece that focuses on former-FCC Commissioner Harris, who is now the attorney for the last reference you posted representing the hi tech group that includes Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Philips, et al. It's a 2003 piece from Forbes Magazine that was written at a time when Harris headed the FCC's Office of Engineering & Technology, and it reads like his future was being written on a wall. "He calls himself "a techie businessman in regulator's clothing." ------ Freeing the Airwaves Scott Woolley, 09.01.03 Ed Thomas, Head, FCC Office of Engineering & Technology forbes.com The Federal Communications Commission has long been the killing field where new wireless technologies are bumped off and buried. The original FCC was created almost expressly for that purpose--to prevent new wireless signals from interfering with existing radio broadcasters. Ever since, incumbent broadcasters have rabidly opposed new untethered technologies, and FCC regulators typically have sided with them. Not Edmond Thomas. An unlikely bureaucrat, he spent four decades at tech and telecom companies--Philips Electronics, the former Nynex and AT&T, among others--before he began working with the FCC in 2001. He runs the Office of Engineering & Technology, which defines the technical rules by which the airwaves are shared. But instead of hoarding spectrum and protecting the Bells and the broadcasters, Thomas is freeing the airwaves, opening the way for new uses and new gadgets. "I want to start creating places where American innovation can go forward," he says. He calls himself "a techie businessman in regulator's clothing." Last year Thomas, 60, helped push through new rules on "ultrawideband" technology. He also led a crusade to free up another huge chunk of spectrum, culling it from military airspace and idle swaths to create the same sort of anything-goes turf that served as the spawning grounds for Wi-Fi. Thomas' new unlicensed parcel almost doubles the spectrum available to Wi-Fi-type technologies. "Ed is very passionate about trying to do the right thing and letting advanced technology have its proper impact," says Paul Kolodzy, former head of the FCC's spectrum-reform task force. Often that requires overcoming the resistance of titans. Ultrawideband gear sprays low-power radio waves across a huge range of frequencies, letting them penetrate walls, among other feats. Because many of the affected frequencies already are in use, in theory ultrawideband gets in the way of everything from satellites to military radar. Thomas sat through a barrage of criticism from the U.S. military, cellular carriers, the airlines and satellite radio companies. But he argued that limiting ultrawideband gadgets to very low power would minimize interference. The rule allowing ultrawideband passed in February 2002. "The reason we got it through is we had good science to back it," Thomas says. It helped that his boss, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, was willing to stand up to the incumbents, he adds. And the giants often assume any new wireless technology is bad. "I don't want to hurt the incumbents, but I'm not going to accept subjective arguments." Another Thomas brainchild: a wireless gadget that can sense its physical location, match it to a geographic database defining the various frequencies in use and then adjust its transmissions to avoid interference. "Ten years ago people would have thought that to be science fiction. That technology is in hand today. It's Buck Rogers stuff," says Thomas. But Thomas Hazlett, a former FCC chief economist now with the Manhattan Institute, argues that the FCC is expanding unlicensed spectrum at the expense of creating licensed, commercial spectrum that could spur even greater innovation. Airwaves that were deregulated but came with ownership deeds could allow companies to experiment with longer-range gear. That, Hazlett says, might do better at preventing congestion than a free-for-all. Such fundamental reform will have to wait for Congress, and that is likely to be a long wait. In the meantime, Edmond Thomas is helping set off the next wave in the Wi-Fi gold rush. ------ ------ FAC