IDG News Service - MagicJack’s femtocell service, unveiled with a splash last week at the Consumer Electronics Show, could potentially ignite a legal battle over the way it makes use of radio frequencies licensed to mobile operators.
The service, set to debut in the second quarter, lets users make and receive calls inside their homes using their regular cell phones for $20 a year. It works by sending calls from a user’s GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phone to a femtocell connected to their computer. From there, the call is carried as VoIP (voice over Internet protocol).
The catch is that between the mobile phone and the femtocell, the call uses cellular frequencies licensed to either AT&T or T-Mobile. MagicJack says it doesn’t need permission from the operators to use those frequencies within the home.
"In your home, you own the frequency," said MagicJack founder Dan Borislow. The MagicJack femtocell is not powerful enough to work outside a 3,000-square-foot home, according to the company. In addition, the software that comes with the femtocell will let users set the power level themselves to cover the appropriate area, with a default of about 500 square feet, Borislow said.
Kevin Werbach, assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, called this a clever argument. “It would arguably be an unreasonable search and seizure under the 4th Amendment to shut down such a transmitter,” he said.
Technically, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission doesn’t give property rights to cellular operators, instead giving them license to transmit and protection against interference, he said. “Here, the only interference is arguably with the end user who purchases the MagicJack device (and therefore has no objection). I'm not sure this will fly, but I assume it's the argument they will make,” he said via e-mail.
Werbach, who served as counsel for new technology policy at the FCC under the Clinton administration and co-led a review of the FCC for President Obama, isn’t aware of this argument being tested in the past.
FCC spokesman Bruce Romano said it would be difficult to comment on the legality of the service since he couldn’t find any application for the device on file with the agency. Borislow said the MagicJack femtocell has not yet been submitted for FCC approval but that it would be a "slam dunk" to get it approved. The company's original MagicJack, for wireline phones, has FCC approval, he said.
Instead of using the property rights argument, MagicJack might be able to have its femtocell approved under the FCC's so-called Part 15 rules. Part 15 allows products to operate in licensed frequencies without a license if they use very low power to prevent interference, said David Josephson of Josephson Engineering, who is a radio engineer and wireless enthusiast. Borislow said the MagicJack femtocell complies with Part 15 regulations but the company has not submitted the product to the FCC for authorization under those rules.
Last month I blogged about the partnerships you should build inside your organization. In keeping with that tone it's time we discussed expanding that partnership mentality to include some of the best technical resources you can ever get hold of, those are the ones that work in your neighboring cities, municipalities, counties, regions, townships etc. Come on folks, these people are already doing exactly the same things as you!
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