FCC Wireless Auction Could Open Up Airwaves
Cellphone customers should soon encounter fewer dead spots in their coverage areas and more easily use next-generation phones that play television-quality video and perform other high-tech tricks, thanks to a Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction that concluded yesterday.
More than 100 bidders -- including cellphone giants T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless -- have promised to pay a total of $13.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury for chunks of the airwaves no longer used by the federal government. It is the largest amount of radio spectrum ever sold at once.
Just like radio and television stations, cellphone companies use the airwaves to send customer calls, text messages, e-mails and video. Each company has a spectrum range it must stay within to avoid interfering with other providers.
Cellphone companies and phone makers have long coveted the new spectrum, which is designed to carry wireless high-speed Internet services. The spectrum augmentation can be thought of as completing a patchwork highway system, widening it from four to eight lanes and raising the speed limit as much as tenfold.
The new spectrum should spur the wider rollout of so-called Third Generation, or "3G," wireless devices. These include cellphones, PDAs, wireless game units and credit-card-sized gadgets called "aircards" that slip into the side of a laptop and eliminate the need for hardwire Internet connections or even WiFi networks. Aircards have become a must-have for business travelers, but the current network coverage limits the speed and amount of data they can transmit and receive.
Cellphone customers should soon encounter fewer dead spots in their coverage areas and more easily use next-generation phones that play television-quality video and perform other high-tech tricks, thanks to a Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction that concluded yesterday.
More than 100 bidders -- including cellphone giants T-Mobile USA Inc. and Verizon Wireless -- have promised to pay a total of $13.9 billion to the U.S. Treasury for chunks of the airwaves no longer used by the federal government. It is the largest amount of radio spectrum ever sold at once.
Just like radio and television stations, cellphone companies use the airwaves to send customer calls, text messages, e-mails and video. Each company has a spectrum range it must stay within to avoid interfering with other providers.
Cellphone companies and phone makers have long coveted the new spectrum, which is designed to carry wireless high-speed Internet services. The spectrum augmentation can be thought of as completing a patchwork highway system, widening it from four to eight lanes and raising the speed limit as much as tenfold.
The new spectrum should spur the wider rollout of so-called Third Generation, or "3G," wireless devices. These include cellphones, PDAs, wireless game units and credit-card-sized gadgets called "aircards" that slip into the side of a laptop and eliminate the need for hardwire Internet connections or even WiFi networks. Aircards have become a must-have for business travelers, but the current network coverage limits the speed and amount of data they can transmit and receive.