Wireless experts: Give us broadcast spectrum

IDG News Service - A group of radio frequency spectrum experts and wireless technology advocates at a congressional forum in Washington today called for the U.S. Congress to reallocate part of the television broadcast spectrum for wireless uses.
"We have these vast empty storefronts of extremely valuable property," Thomas Hazlett, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, said of the TV spectrum. The broadcast TV band has 67 channels allocated, whereas the average U.S. city gets seven over-the-air channels, he said.
Hazlett joined Steve Berry, senior vice president at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, during a panel discussion on wireless Internet deployment sponsored by the Congressional Internet Caucus in advocating that more spectrum be allocated for wireless use. Berry noted that more than 90% of U.S. residents don't receive their television signals over the air, instead using cable or satellite services.
A Federal Communications Commission goal to allocate another 100 MHz to wireless uses in the next 10 years "is not very ambitious," Hazlett said.
Berry and Hazlett said wireless services have 159 MHz of spectrum available for use, but most European nations have about 250 MHz of spectrum. "We've taken a national asset, and I think we've made great things happen with a very modest amount of spectrum," Berry said of his trade association's members.
A representative of the National Association of Broadcasters wasn't available to immediately respond to Berry and Hazlett, but panel moderator Gerry Waldron, a partner at communications law firm Covington & Burling, challenged them, saying Congress has passed six pieces of legislation since 1934 designating the broadcast spectrum as cost-free to customers and separate from other spectrum uses.
"Congress has passed legislation saying broadcast spectrum is different," Waldron said.
The discussion, titled "Sell it, lease it, or give it away -- how can spectrum reform best promote wireless Internet deployment?" produced debate on which of those three models is the best way to decide how radio spectrum is divvied up in the U.S. Berry advocated sales and leases of spectrum, with some free common areas. But he also complained that federal requirements such as Enhanced 911 emergency services on cell phones are slowing down innovation, compared with other wireless services such as Wi-Fi, which uses unlicensed spectrum.
"[FCC Chairman] Michael Powell may be correct that regulatory requirements are in fact a wet blanket that covers the spark of invention and development in the high-tech industry," Berry said.
Michael Calabrese, director of the Public Assets Program at the Washington-based New America Foundation, said the FCC should