Tom Barry wrote: > The government could probably create a spectrum > market fairly quickly simply by leasing all > spectrum to the highest bidders instead of selling > or "loaning" it. Lease cost could be adjusted > periodically based upon market forces, with staggered > lease expirations. The government wouldn't have to > actually run the any spectrum utility, simply ensure > that no one could just squat on the spectrum by > making that squat too expensive. Which is essentially what they've done, as I see it. Not to the highest bidder, but instead to companies that provide a service the govt finds desirable. Meaning, broadcast radio (initially) and then TV too, freely available to all receivers out there. I don't think Craig wants the govt to actually run the utility. At least, I never saw that implied. Which begs the question, if cable TV could evolve from a mere rural TV distribution service to media giants in their own right, why wouldn't any other similar utility go through the same evolution? As to the spectral efficiency or usage aspects, again, I don't see the big advantages of the FCC handing the TV spectrum to a single gatekeeper. Craig uses numbers like 60-100 MHz available in a market, but even that number is suspect. Interference issues won't go away just because the spectrum is owned by one entity. If the "utility" can offer 100 MHz in a given location, then separate companies should be able to do the same, in the aggregate. And entities like USDTV can use an aggregated bandwidth, where they merge the bandwidth from multiple frequency channels. Let's just assume for a moment that IEEE 802.16 is the standard that applies to this utility. This makes some sense, since WiMax is meant to be a metropolitan area standard. Well, there are plenty of interference considerations to be made if you want to use WiMax, and the standard spells them out. Some frequencies can only be used indoors. There are channel spacing requirements that differ in the different parts of the allowable spectrum. Individual channels are allowed to be sized anywhere from about 1.75 MHz to 20 MHz (and including specifically 6, 7, and 8 MHz), using n-QAM or OFDM (or OFDMA, which would not apply to our braodcast environment). There are power limitations to consider, to prevent interference. IEEE 802.16 Annex B discusses these for the frequencies below 11 GHz, which presumably would apply in our case. Most of the discussion is about mesh nets or nets inside a building or across the street. Obviously, these are usually 1 W or less ERP. I guess what I'm trying to get across is that there are no magic shorcuts here. The physics won't change just because one entity might manage or operate the "utility," as opposed to multiple entities. If you want to obtain ubiquitous coverage of large areas, whether this is done by a single "utility" over multiple WiMax bands, or by individual mini utilities over similarly sized ATSC or DVB-T RF bands, the same problems have to be addressed and solved. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.